1864–1949 · Late Romantic

Richard Strauss

10 works

Strauss was born in Munich. His father, Franz Strauss, was principal horn of the Munich Court Opera, and the horn stayed close to his heart. His early works, the Serenade for thirteen winds (1881), the First Horn Concerto (1882 to 1883) and the Burleske for piano (1885 to 1886), follow Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms. In 1883 he became assistant to Hans von Bülow at Meiningen, and Alexander Ritter pushed him toward Wagner, Liszt and the tone poem.

His tone poems of 1888 to 1898 tell a story or draw a character with a very large orchestra. Don Juan (1888) is based on a poem by Lenau. Death and Transfiguration (1888 to 1889) follows a dying artist; the poem explaining it was written by Ritter after the music. Till Eulenspiegel is a rondo in which two themes, on horn and on D clarinet, stand for Till's pranks. Ein Heldenleben (1898) has six linked sections and quotes his earlier works. Themes return in changed form, in the manner of Wagner's leitmotifs.

After the tone poems he turned mostly to opera. A late creative burst from 1942 includes the Second Horn Concerto, which looks back to the style of his teens; Metamorphosen (1944 to 1945), for twenty-three solo strings, lamenting the destruction of German cultural life; and the Four Last Songs (1948) for soprano and orchestra.

What to listen for

In Ein Heldenleben, the hero's theme on rising E-flat major notes in horns and cellos, the battle section with two snare drums and off-stage trumpets, and quotations of Don Juan and other earlier works.
In Till Eulenspiegel, the "once upon a time" opening, the horn and D clarinet themes, a funeral march at his trial, and the same opening returning at the end.
In Metamorphosen, twenty-three solo strings each with a separate line, and the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica played by the low strings near the end, marked "In memoriam".
In the Four Last Songs, the soprano soaring over a full orchestra with prominent horns; in Im Abendrot the Transfiguration theme from Death and Transfiguration appears after the question whether this is death.
In the early Serenade and Horn Concerto No. 1, a clear, Classical-Romantic style close to Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Sources: Richard Strauss (Wikipedia), Ein Heldenleben (Wikipedia), Don Juan (Strauss) (Wikipedia), Death and Transfiguration (Wikipedia), Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Wikipedia), Metamorphosen (Wikipedia), Four Last Songs (Wikipedia), Horn Concerto No. 1 (Strauss) (Wikipedia), Horn Concerto No. 2 (Strauss) (Wikipedia), IMSLP: Serenade for Winds, Op.7 (Strauss, Richard), Burleske (Wikipedia)