Strauss, R.: Heldenleben

Description

Richard Strauss{1864-1949)Ein Heldenleben;MacbethThe German composer and conductor Richard Strauss represents aremarkable extension of the work of Liszt and Wagner in the symphonic poems ofhis early career and in his operas shows au equally remarkable use of lateromantic orchestral idiom, often within an almost Mozartian framework. Born inMunich, the son of a distinguished horn-player and his second wife, a member ofa rich brewing family, he had a sound general education at the Ludwigsgymnasiumin Munich, while studying music under teachers of obvious distinction. Beforehe left school in 1882 he had already enjoyed some success as a composer,continued during his brief period at Munich University with the composition ofconcertos for violin and for French horn and a sonata for cello and piano. Bythe age of twenty-one he had been appointed assistant conductor to thewell-known orchestra at Meiningen under Hans von B??low, whom he succeeded inthe following year.In 1886 Strauss resigned from Meiningen and began the series oftone-poems that seemed to extend to the utmost limit the extra-musical contentof the form. The first of these works, Aus Italien ('From Italy'), wasfollowed by Macbeth, Dan Juan, Tod und Verklarung ('Death andTransfiguration') and, after a gap of a few years, Till Eulenspiegel, Alsosprach Zarathustra ('Thus spoke Zarathustra'), Don Quixote and EinHeldenleben ('A Hero's Life'). Meanwhile Strauss was establishing hisreputation as a conductor, directing the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for aseason and taking appointments in Munich and then at the opera in Berlin, wherehe later became Court Composer.The new century brought a renewed attention to opera, a medium in whichhe had initially enjoyed no great success. Salome, performed in Dresdenin 1905, was followed in 1909 by Elektra, with a libretto by the writer withwhom he was to collaborate over the next twenty years, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. DerRosen-kavalier ('The Knight of the Rose'), a romantic opera set in theVienna of Mozart, was staged at the Court Opera in Dresden in 1911, followed byten further operas, ending only with Capriccio, mounted at theStaatsoper in Munich in 1942.It was unfortunate that, in the eyes of many, Strauss was compromised byhis seeming acquiescence under the National Socialist Government that came topower in 1933, taking over from conductors threatened by the regime or fromthose, like Toscanini, who refused engagements under the prevailingcircumstances. In particular his acceptance in 1933 of the position ofPresident of the new Reichsmusikkammer established by Joseph Goebbels,with F??rtwangler as Vice-?¡President, brought later criticism and hostility,although his actions may be seen as defending his Jewish daughter-in-law andhis own grandchildren from the obvious dangers that the Third Reich presented.After 1945 he withdrew for a time to Switzerland, returning to his own house atGarmisch only four months before his death in 1949.Strauss completed his tone-poem