Richard Georg Strauss ( / s t r aʊ s / ; German: [ˈʁɪçaʁt ˈʃtʁaʊs] ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor known for his tone poems and operas. He was a major figure in the late Romantic and early Modern music periods. He followed in the footsteps of composers like Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. He worked with his friend Gustav Mahler to blend detailed orchestration with complex musical styles.

He began writing music when he was six years old, and his work continued until his death nearly 80 years later. His first tone poem to gain wide recognition was Don Juan. Other famous tone poems include Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Quixote, Ein Heldenleben, Symphonia Domestica, and An Alpine Symphony. His first opera to become famous internationally was Salome, based on a German translation of a French play by Oscar Wilde. Later, he created critically praised operas with librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, including Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die ägyptische Helena, and Arabella. His later operas, such as Daphne, Friedenstag, Die Liebe der Danae, and Capriccio, used libretti written by Joseph Gregor, a Viennese theatre historian. Other well-known works include two symphonies, songs (especially the Four Last Songs), the Violin Concerto in D minor, the Horn Concerto No. 1 and No. 2, his Oboe Concerto, and other instrumental pieces like Metamorphosen.

As a conductor, Strauss was respected in Europe and the Americas. His performances of works by composers like Liszt, Mozart, and Wagner, along with his own compositions, earned him admiration. He studied conducting under Hans von Bülow and began his career as Bülow’s assistant with the Meiningen Court Orchestra in 1883. After Bülow left in 1885, Strauss led the orchestra for five months before becoming a conductor at the Bavarian State Opera from 1886 to 1889. He later worked as principal conductor at the Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar (1889–1894), conducted at the Bayreuth Festival in 1894, and returned to the Bavarian State Opera as principal conductor (1894–1898). He later led the Berlin State Opera (1898–1913), the Vienna State Opera (1919–1924), and co-founded the Salzburg Festival in 1920. He also frequently conducted internationally.

In 1933, Strauss was appointed to two important roles in Nazi Germany: head of the Reichsmusikkammer and principal conductor of the Bayreuth Festival. He accepted the Bayreuth position after Arturo Toscanini resigned in protest against the Nazi Party. Some people criticized Strauss for working with the Nazis. However, Strauss’s daughter-in-law, Alice Grab Strauss (née von Hermannswörth), was Jewish. He took these roles partly to protect her and her children from harm. He also tried to help composers like Gustav Mahler and Felix Mendelssohn by preserving their works. He insisted on using a Jewish librettist, Stefan Zweig, for his opera Die schweigsame Frau, which led to his dismissal from the Reichsmusikkammer and Bayreuth. Zweig later expressed disappointment in Strauss’s association with the Nazi regime. Strauss’s opera Friedenstag, which premiered before World War II began, subtly criticized the Nazi Party and encouraged peace. His influence helped place his daughter-in-law under protected house arrest during the war, but he could not save many of his in-laws from being killed in Nazi concentration camps. In 1948, a year before his death, a court in Munich cleared Strauss of wrongdoing.

Life

Richard Strauss was born on June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany. He was the son of Josephine (née Pschorr) and Franz Strauss. Franz was a principal horn player at the Munich Court Opera and taught music at the Königliche Musikschule. Josephine was the daughter of Georg Pschorr, a wealthy brewer from Munich.

At age four, Strauss began studying piano with August Tombo, who played the harp in the Munich Court Orchestra. Soon after, he attended orchestra rehearsals and received lessons in music theory and orchestration from the assistant conductor. Strauss wrote his first composition at age six and continued composing music until his death. In 1872, he started violin lessons with Benno Walter, the director of the Munich Court Orchestra and his father’s cousin. At age 11, he studied composition for five years with Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer. In 1882, he graduated from the Ludwigsgymnasium and attended one year of classes at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Strauss’s father played a major role in his musical development. Music was a central part of the Strauss family home, and they often gathered with Ludwig Thuille, an orphaned composer and music theorist who became like a family member. Strauss’s father taught him the works of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert. He also helped his son with his compositions during the 1870s and early 1880s by offering advice and feedback.

Strauss’s father supported his son’s music by performing his compositions with the Wilde Gung'l, an amateur orchestra he conducted from 1875 to 1896. Many of Strauss’s early symphonic pieces were written for this group. His early style was influenced by composers like Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, as taught by his father. His father also helped Strauss develop a deep love for the horn, which is evident in Strauss’s first Horn Concerto, a well-known piece in the modern horn repertoire.

In 1874, Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. He later attended performances of Die Walküre, Siegfried, and the full Ring Cycle in Munich. Wagner’s music had a strong influence on Strauss, but his father initially forbade him from studying it. In the Strauss household, Wagner’s music was not welcomed, and it was not until Strauss was 16 that he obtained a score of Tristan und Isolde. In 1882, Strauss attended the Bayreuth Festival, where his father performed in the world premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal. Letters from this time show Strauss had a negative view of Wagner’s music. Later in life, Strauss regretted his family’s early resistance to Wagner’s work.

In early 1882, Strauss performed his Violin Concerto in D minor in Vienna. He played a piano version of the orchestral part while his teacher, Benno Walter, was the violin soloist. That same year, he studied philosophy and art history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München but did not study music. After one year, he moved to Berlin and later joined the Meiningen Court Orchestra as an assistant conductor to Hans von Bülow, who was impressed by Strauss’s Serenade (Op. 7), composed when he was 16.

Strauss learned conducting by watching Bülow rehearse. Bülow was a great influence on Strauss, who often said Bülow taught him “the art of interpretation.” Under Bülow’s guidance, Strauss made his first major performance as a pianist, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with his own cadenzas.

In December 1885, Bülow resigned, and Strauss became the temporary principal conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra until April 1886. During this time, he helped prepare the orchestra for the world premiere of Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, which Brahms conducted himself. Strauss also conducted Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, and Brahms gave him advice about his music.

Brahms’s music had a strong impact on Strauss, and he referred to this period as his “Brahms adoration.” Several of Strauss’s compositions from this time, such as the Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13, Wandrers Sturmlied, and Burleske, show Brahms’s influence.

In 1885, Strauss met Alexander Ritter, a violinist in the Meiningen orchestra and the husband of one of Wagner’s nieces. Ritter encouraged Strauss to move away from his conservative style and adopt the “music of the future” by studying Wagner and Franz Liszt. Ritter also introduced Strauss to the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, Wagner, and Friedrich von Hausegger. These influences helped Strauss develop a new artistic direction, which became clear in his use of tone poems.

In 1886, after leaving Meiningen, Strauss traveled through Italy and wrote about the sights and sounds he experienced. These notes later inspired his first tone poem, Aus Italien (1886). Soon after, Ritter moved to Munich, and the two men met regularly with Thuille and Anton Seidl to discuss music, philosophy, and literature.

Strauss’s time at the Bavarian State Opera was difficult. After the death of Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1886, the opera house received less financial support from his successor, Otto of Bavaria. This made it hard to stage expensive productions like Wagner’s operas. Strauss was assigned to conduct less ambitious works by composers like Boieldieu, Auber, and Donizetti, which bored him. He also had to step in last-minute to conduct operas he had not rehearsed, causing problems for the singers and orchestra.

During this time, Strauss found more satisfaction in conducting outside Munich, in cities like Berlin, Dresden, and Leipzig. In Leipzig, he met and became friends with composer Gustav Mahler in 1887. That same year, he met his future wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna, who was then a voice student at the Munich Musikschule. She later switched to private lessons with Strauss, who became her main teacher.

Music

Richard Strauss began his musical career by writing pieces for solo instruments and small groups. These early works include piano compositions in a traditional musical style, many of which are no longer available. Examples from this time are two piano trios (1877 and 1878), a string quartet (1881), a piano sonata (1882), a cello sonata (1883), a piano quartet (1885), a violin sonata (1888), a serenade (1882), and a longer suite (1884). These pieces were written for a group of wind instruments, including two extra horns and a contrabassoon.

After 1890, Strauss focused less on chamber music and more on large orchestral works and operas. Four of his chamber pieces are based on parts of his operas, such as the Daphne-Etude for solo violin and the String Sextet, which is the overture to his final opera, Capriccio. His last independent chamber work, a piece called Allegretto in E major for violin and piano, was written in 1948.

During this time, Strauss also composed two large works for wind ensembles: Sonatina No. 1 "From an Invalid's Workshop" (1943) and Sonatina No. 2 "Happy Workshop" (1946). These pieces were written for a group of wind instruments, including two extra horns, a third clarinet, a bassett horn, a bass clarinet, and a contrabassoon.

Strauss wrote two early symphonies: Symphony No. 1 (1880) and Symphony No. 2 (1884). His musical style changed significantly in 1885 when he met Alexander Ritter, a composer and violinist who was also married to one of Richard Wagner’s nieces. Ritter encouraged Strauss to move away from his traditional style and begin writing tone poems. He also introduced Strauss to the writings of Wagner and Arthur Schopenhauer. Strauss conducted one of Ritter’s operas, and later, Ritter wrote a poem about the events in Strauss’s tone poem Death and Transfiguration. This new influence led to Strauss’s first major work showing his mature style, the tone poem Don Juan (1888), which displays a new level of skill in orchestral writing. Strauss continued to write ambitious tone poems, including Death and Transfiguration (1889), Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks (1895), Also sprach Zarathustra (1896), Don Quixote (1897), Ein Heldenleben (1898), Symphonia Domestica (1903), and An Alpine Symphony (1911–1915). One commentator said these works are essential for orchestras, as they celebrate the power of the post-Wagnerian symphony orchestra.

James Hepokoski noted a change in Strauss’s tone poem style between 1892 and 1893. After this time, Strauss stopped following Schopenhauer’s philosophy and began criticizing the structure of symphonies and symphonic poems, making his later tone poems different from his earlier ones.

Strauss wrote many works for solo instruments and orchestras. His most famous include two horn concertos—Horn Concerto No. 1 (1883) and Horn Concerto No. 2 (1942)—which are still performed by horn soloists today. Other notable works are the Romanze for cello and orchestra (1883), a Violin Concerto in D minor (1882), the Burleske for piano and orchestra (1885, revised 1889), the tone poem Don Quixote for cello, viola, and orchestra (1897), the Oboe Concerto in D major (1945), and the Duet concertino for clarinet and bassoon with string orchestra (1948), one of his final works.

At the end of the 19th century, Strauss began writing operas. His first two attempts, Guntram (1894) and Feuersnot (1901), were controversial. Guntram was a major failure, and Feuersnot was criticized for being inappropriate.

In 1905, Strauss wrote Salome, an opera based on Oscar Wilde’s play. It was modern in style and used dissonant sounds, which caused strong reactions from audiences. The premiere was a success, with the performers receiving over 38 curtain calls. Many later performances were also well-received, even by other composers like Maurice Ravel and Gustav Mahler. Strauss used the money from Salome to build his home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Like Elektra (1909), Salome features a very challenging role for the lead soprano. Strauss often said he preferred writing for female voices, and the male roles in these operas are usually smaller.

Elektra (1909) used even more dissonance, especially in the Elektra chord. This was the first opera Strauss wrote with the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who later collaborated with him on many works. For later operas with Hofmannsthal, Strauss used a more melodic and romantic style, similar to Wagner’s music, with less dissonance and more orchestral skill. This led to successful operas like Der Rosenkavalier (1911). Strauss continued writing operas regularly until 1942. With Hofmannsthal, he created Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), Die ägyptische Helena (1928), and Arabella (1933). For Intermezzo (1924), Strauss wrote his own libretto. Die schweigsame Frau (1935) was written with Stefan Zweig, and Friedenstag (1935–36) and Daphne (1937) had librettos by Joseph Gregor and Stefan Zweig. *Die Liebe der Danae

Legacy

In 1927, TIME magazine suggested that Richard Strauss composed music to see how much "noisy sounds, clashing notes, exaggerated expressions, and humorous elements" his audiences would enjoy. Early in Strauss's career, a respected music expert named Hugo Riemann noted, "His later works clearly show his desire to create a strong impression, even if it meant taking risks."

Until the 1980s, some modern music scholars viewed Strauss as a traditional composer who avoided new ideas. However, later research changed this view, showing that Strauss was actually a modernist who used traditional harmony and rich orchestral sounds in his work. Strauss was known for his creative use of orchestration and advanced harmonic techniques. When a conductor named Mark Elder first heard Strauss's music in a university performance of Ariadne auf Naxos, he was surprised. He said, "I had no idea music could achieve the things he did with harmony and melody."

Strauss's music greatly influenced composers at the start of the 20th century. In 1902, Béla Bartók listened to Also sprach Zarathustra and later said the piece "held the beginnings of a new musical direction." This influence is visible in Bartók's works from that time, including his First String Quartet, Kossuth, and Bluebeard's Castle. Strauss also had a major impact on Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern. Karol Szymanowski was deeply influenced by Strauss, as seen in his Concert Overture, symphonies, and opera Hagith, which was inspired by Strauss's Salome. English composers like Edward Elgar and Benjamin Britten were also influenced by Strauss's style. Many modern composers, including John Adams and John Corigliano, have acknowledged their debt to Strauss.

Strauss's musical style played a key role in shaping film music during the mid-20th century. His methods of expressing characters (such as in Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, and The Hero) and emotions became part of film scoring techniques. Film music historian Timothy Schuerer wrote, "The most influential aspects of late romantic music for film scoring include its rich sound, expanded harmonic language, chromaticism, program music, and the use of Leitmotifs." Hollywood composers like Max Steiner and Erich Korngold, who shared Strauss's musical background, naturally adopted his style. Film historian Roy Prendergast noted, "When faced with dramatic challenges in films, Steiner, Korngold, and Newman looked to composers like Wagner, Puccini, Verdi, and Strauss for solutions." The opening of Also sprach Zarathustra became famous after Stanley Kubrick used it in his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. John Williams's film scores, such as those for Superman and Star Wars, continued Strauss's influence.

Strauss has remained popular with audiences in concert halls. From 2002 to 2010, he was consistently among the top 10 composers most performed by symphony orchestras in the U.S. and Canada. He also ranks in the top 5 of 20th-century composers (born after 1860) based on the number of available recordings of his works.

As a conductor, Strauss made many recordings of his own music and works by German and Austrian composers. His 1929 performances of Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks and Don Juan with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra are considered among the best of his early electrical recordings. In 1941, Strauss conducted the first complete performance of his An Alpine Symphony, which required a full set of percussion instruments. This recording was later released by EMI.

Koch Legacy has also released Strauss's recordings of overtures by composers like Gluck, Carl Maria von Weber, Peter Cornelius, and Wagner. During the 1920s through the 1940s, German audiences preferred music by German and Austrian composers, reflecting the national pride that existed after World War I. Strauss took advantage of this trend by promoting music by great German-speaking composers.

Many other recordings exist, including those from radio broadcasts and concerts in the 1930s and early 1940s. The large number of recorded performances highlights Strauss's skill as a conductor. In 1944, Strauss celebrated his 80th birthday by conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in recordings of his major orchestral works and the rarely performed ballet Schlagobers (Whipped Cream). Some listeners find these later recordings more emotionally expressive than his earlier ones, which were made on Magnetophon tape recording equipment. Vanguard Records later released these recordings on LPs, and some have been reissued on CD by Preiser. Strauss's final recording was made on October 19, 1947, live at London's Royal Albert Hall, where he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in his Burleske for piano and orchestra, Don Juan, and Sinfonia Domestica.

Strauss also created live-recording player piano music rolls for the Hupfeld system and made ten recordings for the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano in 1906, all of which survive today. He also composed the music for the first commercially released CD: Deutsche Grammophon's 1983 release of their 1980 recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting An Alpine Symphony.

Pierre Boulez described Strauss as "a complete master of his trade." Music critic Harold C. Schonberg noted that while Strauss was a skilled conductor, he often put little effort into his recordings. Schonberg focused on Strauss's recordings of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, pointing out that Strauss performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in about 45 minutes. Schonberg wrote, "There is almost never a slowdown or a change in expression or nuance. The slow movement is almost as fast as the following vivace; and the last movement, with a big cut in it, is finished in 4 minutes, 25 seconds. (It should run between 7 and 8 minutes.)" He also criticized Strauss's performance of Mozart's symphony for being "lifeless, uncharming, and rigid."

Peter Gutmann's 1994 review for ClassicalNotes.com noted that Strauss's performances of Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh symphonies, as well as Mozart's last three symphonies, are actually quite good, even if they sometimes differ from traditional interpretations. Gutmann wrote

Honors

• 1903: Honorary Doctorate, Heidelberg University.
• 1907: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur, Croix de Chevalier, Paris, France. Officier (14 June 1914).
• 1910: Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art.
• 1914: Honorary Doctorate, Oxford University. Honorary citizen of Munich.
• 1924: Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Art, German award.
• 1924: Honorary Doctorate, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Freedom of the cities of Vienna and Salzburg.
• 1932: New York College of Music Medal.
• 1936: The Royal Philharmonic Society's gold medal.
• 1939: Commandeur de L'Ordre de la Couronne, presented by Leopold III of Belgium.
• 1949: Honorary Doctorate, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

In later culture

James Blish's science fiction story "A Work of Art" tells a story about the idea of Richard Strauss's personality and character being placed inside another person.