Getting to know...Richard Strauss

Strauss (left) with his father (right)

11 June 1864 – Richard Georg Strauss was born in Munich, Germany. The son of Franz Strauss, principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich, Richard Strauss would receive a comprehensive musical education from his father and would write his first composition at the age of six.
 

 

Richard Wagner

1874 - Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagner's music on Strauss would be exceptionally important, but it was not until the age of 16 that Strauss was able to obtain a score of Tristan und Isolde due to his father’s extreme suspicion of Wagner’s work. 

Hans von Bülow

1882 - Strauss entered Munich University, where he studied Philosophy and Art History, but left a year later to go to Berlin, where he secured a post as assistant conductor to Hans von Bülow. Much of the style of Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn can be observed in Strauss' compositions from this time and his Horn Concerto No. 1, Op. 11 is a staple of modern horn repertoire.
 

Alexander Ritter

1885 - Strauss' style began to truly develop and change when he met Alexander Ritter, a noted composer and violinist. It was Ritter who persuaded Strauss to abandon the conservative style of his youth, and begin writing tone poems, resulting in the creation of works such as Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, and Don Quixote.
 

Pauline de Ahna

10 September 1894 - Richard Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna, who would be an enduring source of inspiration for him. Throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897.
 

Richard Strauss

End of 19th Century - Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two attempts in the genre, Guntram (1894) and Feuersnot (1901), were controversial works: Guntram was the first significant critical failure of Strauss's career, and Feuersnot was considered obscene by some critics.

Illustration of Salome by Aubrey Beardsley

In 1905, Strauss produced Salome, an opera based on the play by Oscar Wilde. The premiere was a major success, with the artists taking more than 38 curtain calls and being described by Mahler as "a live volcano, a subterranean fire".
 

Strauss with his grandchildren

March 1933 - Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power. Strauss never joined the Nazi party. However, in order to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and Jewish grandchildren and in the hope that he would be be able to help promote German art and culture, he was initially drawn into cooperating with the early Nazi regime and accepted the position of president of the Reichsmusikkammer.
 

 

Stefan Zweig

1935 – Strauss’ comic opera, Die schweigsame Frau, which he had composed with his Jewish friend and librettist Stefan Zweig was premiered in Dresden, with Strauss insisting that Zweig's name appear on the theatrical billing. As a result, Goebbels did not attend as planned, the opera was banned after just three performances  and Strauss was sacked from his position in the Reichsmusikkammer.

Dresden after the Allied bombings

1945 - Strauss completed the composition of Metamorphosen, a work for 23 solo strings. Widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of the string repertoire, Metamorphosen contains Strauss's greatest expression of tragic emotion. Written during the darkest days of WW2, Metamorphosen articulates Strauss's mourning of, among other things, the destruction of German culture — including the bombing of every great opera house in the nation.

Richard Strauss by Max Liebermann

1948 - Strauss wrote his last work, the profound and haunting Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra.
 

8 September 1949 - Richard Strauss died at the age of 85 on 8 September 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Southern Sinfonia performs Strauss' Four Last Songs with Windsor & Eton Choral Society on Tuesday 11 December at Eton College School Hall. For more information please visit our website.