Master of the Orchestra: Richard Strauss
[Above: Strauss in July 1945, picture taken by US Army Special Film Project 186.]
A few days after finishing Metamorphosen in 1945, Strauss wrote in his diary:
The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany’s 2,000 years of cultural evolution met its doom.
At the same time as he was starting sketches for Metamorphosen in 1944 Strauss was working on a sketch for choir based on the following verses of Goethe:
No one can really know himself,
detach himself from his inner being
Yet, each day he must put to the test,
What is in the end, clear.
What he is and what he was,
what he can be and what he might be.
But, what goes on in the world,
No one really understands it rightly,
and also up to the present day,
no one desires to understand it.
Conduct yourself with discernment.
Just as the day offers itself;
Think always: it’s gone well up to now,
so might it go until the end.
Show archive
Playlist
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Karl Böhm & Staatskapelle Dresden, “Ein Alpensinfonie, Op. 64: I. Night - Sunrise”
from Strauss: Tone Poems
Deutsche Grammophon - 1988
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Karl Böhm & Staatskapelle Dresden, “Ein Alpensinfonie, Op. 64: II. The Ascent”
from Strauss: Tone Poems
Deutsche Grammophon - 1988
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Karl Böhm & Staatskapelle Dresden, “Ein Alpensinfonie, Op. 64: III. Entering The Wood”
from Strauss: Tone Poems
Deutsche Grammophon - 1988
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Michael Gielen & CIncinnati Symphony Orchestra, “Metamorphosen for 23 String Instruments”
from Strauss: Death & Transfiguration/Metamorphosen
Moss Music Group - 1986
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Rudolf Kempe, Manfred Clement & Staatskapelle Dresden, “Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra in D Major, TrV 292”
from Strauss: Oboe Concerto & Duett - Concertino for Clarinet, Bassoon and Strings
Warner Classics - 1976
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Fritz Reiner & Chicago Symphony Orchestra, “Le bourgeois gentilhomme, Op. 60: I. Overture”
from Fritz Reiner Conducts Richard Strauss
RCA Red Seal - 2010
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Fritz Reiner & Chicago Symphony Orchestra, “Le bourgeois gentilhomme, Op. 60: II. Menuett”
from Fritz Reiner Conducts Richard Strauss
RCA Red Seal - 2010
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Fritz Reiner & Chicago Symphony Orchestra, “Le bourgeois gentilhomme, Op. 60: III. Der Fechtmeister”
from Fritz Reiner Conducts Richard Strauss
RCA - 2010
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Fritz Reiner & Chicago Symphony Orchestra, “Le bourgeois gentilhomme, Op. 60: IV. Auftritt und Tanz der Schneider”
from Fritz Reiner Conducts Richard Strauss
RCA - 2010
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Rudolf Kempe & Staatskapelle Dresden, “Josephslegende, Symphonic Fragment, Op. 63”
from Richard Strauss: Complete Orchestral Works
Warner Classics - 2013