Richard
Strauss : Man, Musician, Enigma by Michael Kennedy
There are few composers whose critical stock has roller-coastered as
dramatically as that of Richard Strauss, both during his lifetime and in
the five decades since his death in 1949. Once considered a dangerous firebrand
of the avant-garde--his early masterpiece Salome was given the equivalent
of an X rating--Strauss remained an exceedingly prolific composer throughout
his long career, yet lived to be "written off as an extinct volcano." The
painful story of his involvement with the Third Reich further cast a pall
over his final years. Kennedy devotes a significant portion of the book
to the composer's position as president of the Reich Music Chamber and
subsequent fall from grace both with the Nazis and in world opinion. Here
the author aims to offer perspective by carefully detailing the facts and
documentary evidence from the time. In his view, Strauss becomes a "tragic
figure, symbolising the struggle to preserve beauty and style in Western
European culture" against emerging barbarism. Yet, as throughout the book,
Kennedy's abiding sympathy with Strauss at times veers close to a kind
of special pleading that invites skepticism. For all that, his style is
admirably lucid, and his biography largely succeeds in pointing to a greatness
that "has not yet been fully understood and discovered." --Thomas May
- Amazon.com Hardcover: 468 pages
Cambridge Univ Pr (Trd); ISBN: 0521581737; (March 1999)
Richard
Strauss by Matthew Boyden, Richard Strauss
Book Description: One of Germany's most successful and popular composers,
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) enjoyed huge celebrity, vast wealth, and unequaled
adulation during his lifetime. His masterful tone poems and operas, including
Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, and Elektra, form a musical legacy that endures
today. Yet Strauss was an enigmatic figure-an artistic genius who was consumed
with a passion to protect the prosperity and security of his own interests.
In this intriguing biography, Matthew Boyden unveils the man behind
the music, painting in masterful fashion a portrait of Strauss's life and
work against the backdrop of his culture and turbulent times. Boyden examines
his upbringing, his education, the influence of his domineering father
and other mentors, and his loving but tempestuous relationship with his
wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna.
This compelling volume provides a frank discussion of his open anti-Semitism
at the Bayreuth Festival and delves into his active and willing collaboration
with Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime, fully exploring why and in which
ways Strauss allied himself with the Third Reich.
Boyden's revealing picture of Strauss shatters the myths surrounding
the great composer and confronts the schism between his artistic achievements
and his driving ambition and egotism. This definitive biography also richly
depicts the social, cultural, and political milieus that shaped Strauss's
character and exceptional talent.
Hardcover from Northeastern University Press
Book Published: September, 1999
Treatise
on Instrumentation by Hector Berlioz, Richard Strauss (Contributor)
Paperback: 432 pages
Dover Pubns; ISBN: 0486269035; (December 1991)
