Strauss, Richard (1864 - 1949)

[Richard Barrett]

it's one of his finest achievements.

Around 1990-91 I had something of an obsession with RS and had almost all of his operas on CD - I don't think they were even all available at that time. Nowadays I would listen to Salome any time, now and again Elektra, Rosenkavalier, Daphne or Capriccio, but even at the most intense point of my involvement with his work I couldn't get on with DFoS. It seems to me so unfocused both dramatically and musically.

[Master Jacques]

Around 1990-91 I had something of an obsession with RS and had almost all of his operas on CD - I don't think they were even all available at that time. Nowadays I would listen to Salome any time, now and again Elektra, Rosenkavalier, Daphne or Capriccio, but even at the most intense point of my involvement with his work I couldn't get on with DFoS. It seems to me so unfocused both dramatically and musically.

Curious how tastes differ - for me, now, almost every Strauss opera has ceased to be interesting, with the exception of Die Frau ohne Schatten! Apart my growing conviction that myth/legend/allegory/fairytale is what opera does supremely well, it seems to me that the ambiguities and wild-goose-chasing of this fabulous (in the full sense) libretto provided Strauss with strong characters added to open-ended morality which make for gripping drama at every turn.

I think the danger, perhaps, is to try and "work out" what the underlying "meaning" is, when that's neither possible nor desirable, any more than it is with The Magic Flute or The Midsummer Marriage, two equally rich and strange operatic goldmines.

[Richard Barrett]

Curious how tastes differ - for me, now, almost every Strauss opera has ceased to be interesting, with the exception of Die Frau ohne Schatten! Apart my growing conviction that myth/legend/allegory/fairytale is what opera does supremely well, it seems to me that the ambiguities and wild-goose-chasing of this fabulous (in the full sense) libretto provided Strauss with strong characters added to open-ended morality which make for gripping drama at every turn.

I think the danger, perhaps, is to try and "work out" what the underlying "meaning" is, when that's neither possible nor desirable, any more than it is with The Magic Flute or The Midsummer Marriage, two equally rich and strange operatic goldmines.

I can see I'm going to have to reassess it. Maybe the Solti recording (the only one I've heard) is at fault here.

[Bryn]

I can see I'm going to have to reassess it. Maybe the Solti recording (the only one I've heard) is at fault here.

You could be onto something there, Richard. One of the Amazon customer reviews puts it thus:

"Having lived for many years with Solti's soulless recording of this work, I didn't appreciate the sheer magic of this opera until I chanced on this recording. I cannot praise highly enough the sheer mastery of the orchestral playing and the faultless performances of all the singers in particular Studer as the Empress. This is the bench mark by which all recordings should be judged and needless to say, the score is given without cuts." (A. Gardner)

The review was of the Sawallisch, by the way.

[Master Jacques]

I can see I'm going to have to reassess it. Maybe the Solti recording (the only one I've heard) is at fault here.

Maybe so - much as I admire Solti's Strauss, this opera doesn't seem to me to play best to his direct strengths. For listening to this opera "in the moment" I personally would put the old [significantly cut] Böhm studio recording for Decca first, with Leonie Rysanek, Christel Goltz and Walter Berry; with EMI Studio Sawallisch the best of the more recent, complete versions, led by Studer and Kollo. But the Böhm has a grandeur and depth of emotion which has (perhaps) not been recaptured by later conductors, at least in the studio.

But whichever you choose, do please have another go at the work - though I know the opera is always going to something like Straussian Marmite!

(PS While I was penning this, I see Bryn has also recommended the Sawallisch set)

[Richard Barrett]

I don't have much time today but I just listened to the beginning of Sawallisch... I don't remember noticing this before, but the opening scene at least seems to carry a stronger influence than most of RS's operas from Wagner in general and the Ring in particular. (No doubt this has been comprehensively discussed by experts!) I wasn't as familiar with Wagner back in the early 90s as I later became, or as enthusiastic about the Wagnerian way of doing things, so I guess that might make me somewhat more receptive to the Frau ohne Schatten than I was originally.

[Belgrove]

... I don't remember noticing this before, but the opening scene at least seems to carry a stronger influence than most of RS's operas from Wagner in general and the Ring in particular..

It is ironic, perhaps, that given Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s initial intentions to use the Magic Flute as a model, both in terms of text and music, it ended up the most Wagnerian of Strauss’ stage works. The flight of the Nurse and Empress from the spirit world down to earth recalls the descent to Nibelheim in Das Rheingold. The magnificent second scene in act two seems to compress most of Siegfried into about twenty minutes. The Emperor’s music is the most heroic in the entire work.
Despite the cuts, I still listen most to the live Bohm Vienna performance with King, Rysanek, Hesse and Berry as principals (Berry is so sympathetic as the put-upon Barak). There is an excitement and sense of occasion that Solti’s studio performance does not capture in spite of its superior sound and fine orchestral playing.

The performance in 2014 at the ROH conducted by Bychkov is one of the finest performances of any opera I’ve seen - the production actually seemed to make sense! And it’s great to watch that huge orchestra at work, achieving those amazing sonic inventions that Strauss conjured.

[Richard Barrett]

it’s great to watch that huge orchestra at work, achieving those amazing sonic inventions that Strauss conjured.

I eventually got about halfway through the Sawallisch recording and found the recorded sound of the orchestra somewhat woolly and lacking in that kind of detail - this isn't how the BRSO actually plays, so I blame the engineers, also for recessing the orchestra too much relative to the voices. I'm still getting a feeling of incoherence, sometimes as if I'm hearing a load of bits and pieces of Wagner stuck back together in the wrong order, but I need to start seeing that as an interesting feature rather than an offputting one... I will get there I think.

[Ein Heldenleben]

It is ironic, perhaps, that given Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s initial intentions to use the Magic Flute as a model, both in terms of text and music, it ended up the most Wagnerian of Strauss’ stage works. The flight of the Nurse and Empress from the spirit world down to earth recalls the descent to Nibelheim in Das Rheingold. The magnificent second scene in act two seems to compress most of Siegfried into about twenty minutes. The Emperor’s music is the most heroic in the entire work.
Despite the cuts, I still listen most to the live Bohm Vienna performance with King, Rysanek, Hesse and Berry as principals (Berry is so sympathetic as the put-upon Barak). There is an excitement and sense of occasion that Solti’s studio performance does not capture in spite of its superior sound and fine orchestral playing.

The performance in 2014 at the ROH conducted by Bychkov is one of the finest performances of any opera I’ve seen - the production actually seemed to make sense! And it’s great to watch that huge orchestra at work, achieving those amazing sonic inventions that Strauss conjured.

I saw that production and I wholeheartedly concur . And what a conductor Bychcov is...
PS I still really recommend giving Saturday nights Vienna State Opera relay a listen .....

[Master Jacques]

I'm still getting a feeling of incoherence, sometimes as if I'm hearing a load of bits and pieces of Wagner stuck back together in the wrong order, but I need to start seeing that as an interesting feature rather than an offputting one... I will get there I think.

Yes, the brutal "cross-cuts" of this score which you notice are (for me) one of the interesting features. It is always galloping onwards, not bothering to work out the material but moving on urgently to the next inspiration. And in the theatre, I have never (thus far!) known the opera to fail.

[Flay]

I've been working on a paper about Strauss which I'm presenting to our local Literary & Social Society this evening. It starts at the end of WW2 when the Americans turn up at his villa wanting to requisition it, then exploring the accusations which were levied, especially when he was visited by the reporter Klaus Mann under an alias. A little about his life, skill and compositions, his desire for financial reward, then on to events in the war itself and his relationship with the Nazi hierarchy.

I noted that in 1900 when discussing Heldenleben he said: "I'm not a hero, I don't do battles." I found an anecdote online saying that in 1945 when trying to justify his wartime actions, he resignedly admitted to Raymond Berger (the father of American author & radio commentator William Berger): "I am not a hero." That made a good title for the piece!

In their biographies, Matthew Boyden goes for not just the jugular, but the carotids in his criticism of Strauss's behaviour. Michael Kennedy is more conciliatory. I must say I am not sure myself if I could have stood up to the Nazis, risking my life and that of my family - it is easy to be judgemental with hindsight. However he could have kept a lower profile, but for his vanity and hubris perhaps?

[Bryn]

I've been working on a paper about Strauss which I'm presenting to our local Literary & Social Society this evening. It starts at the end of WW2 when the Americans turn up at his villa wanting to requisition it, then exploring the accusations which were levied, especially when he was visited by the reporter Klaus Mann under an alias. A little about his life, skill and compositions, his desire for financial reward, then on to events in the war itself and his relationship with the Nazi hierarchy.

I noted that in 1900 when discussing Heldenleben he said: "I'm not a hero, I don't do battles." I found an anecdote online saying that in 1945 when trying to justify his wartime actions, he resignedly admitted to Raymond Berger (the father of American author & radio commentator William Berger): "I am not a hero." That made a good title for the piece!

In their biographies, Matthew Boyden goes for not just the jugular, but the carotids in his criticism of Strauss's behaviour. Michael Kennedy is more conciliatory. I must say I am not sure myself if I could have stood up to the Nazis, risking my life and that of my family - it is easy to be judgemental with hindsight. However he could have kept a lower profile, but for his vanity and hubris perhaps?

I do hope you will be making your paper available for us to read, after its presentation. Come to that, a recording of your presentation would be welcome, I feel.

[Flay]

I do hope you will be making your paper available for us to read, after its presentation. Come to that, a recording of your presentation would be welcome, I feel.

So long as nobody prints it - I would be up in court for plagiarism, I've used so many unreferenced quotes!

[Serial_Apologist]

So long as nobody prints it - I would be up in court for plagiarism, I've used so many unreferenced quotes!

I dare say *one* could quote from your talk, so long as *one* didn't quote any of the unattributed references!

[Richard Barrett]

I must say I am not sure myself if I could have stood up to the Nazis, risking my life and that of my family - it is easy to be judgemental with hindsight. However he could have kept a lower profile, but for his vanity and hubris perhaps?

He could easily have moved himself and his family somewhere else, like Switzerland for example, and he wouldn't have been short of cash like other escapees from the Nazis (Schoenberg and Bartók for example). I don't have much sympathy with his behaviour in the Third Reich at all. I saw a performance of Metamorphosen a couple of weeks ago, and this struck me once more: even at that stage all he could think about was the destruction of his beloved Munich.