Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma

by Michael Kennedy

• ISBN13: 9780521581738
• ISBN10: 0521581737
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book re-evaluates a figure whom the author considers to be the greatest composer of the twentieth century. Kennedy deals fully with Strauss's life as leading composer and national figure in the Third Reich, during which he was both fêted and cold-shouldered by the authorities. In putting this period into perspective he draws heavily on hitherto ignored material, including Strauss's own letters and diaries. In addition he reveals much about Strauss's long, happy but tempestuous marriage to the soprano Pauline de Ahna as well as tracing the important relationships to his librettists Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Stefan Zweig, Joseph Gregor and Clemens Krauss. Kennedy reassesses the man and the music, revealing a picture of a level-headed, practical and extremely versatile musician - a great conductor as well as a great composer.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix	(4)
Preface	xiii	(2)
Acknowledgements	xv
PART I 1864-1898 Youth in Munich	3	(122)
1 The family	3	(9)
2 Wunderkind	12	(15)
3 Growing up	27	(10)
4 Meiningen	37	(9)
5 Third Conductor	46	(8)
6 Dora and Weimar	54	(10)
7 First failure	64	(13)
8 Engagement	77	(7)
9 Pauline	84	(17)
10 The tone-poet	101	(24)
PART II 1898-1918 The Berlin years	125	(80)
11 At the Kaiser's court	125	(25)
12 Enter Hofmannsthal	150	(24)
13 The Ariadne crisis	174	(15)
14 Twentieth-century Offenbach	189	(16)
PART III 1918-1933 Out of fashion	205	(64)
15 Vienna	205	(24)
16 Intermezzo	229	(9)
17 Helena	238	(9)
18 Arabella	247	(8)
19 The gathering storm	255	(14)
PART IV 1933-1949 The dark years	269	(132)
20 Taking Walter's place	269	(11)
21 The Reich Chamber	280	(12)
22 Dismissal	292	(13)
23 Working with Gregor	305	(16)
24 Danae and Madeleine	321	(13)
25 After Capriccio	334	(16)
26 Eightieth birthday	350	(7)
27 Metamorphosen	357	(6)
28 `I am Richard Strauss...'	363	(5)
29 The exile	368	(7)
30 London	375	(6)
31 Last songs	381	(6)
32 Return to Garmisch	387	(14)
Appendix 1 Strauss as conductor and pianist	401	(5)
Appendix 2 Strauss and the gramophone	406	(3)
Notes	409	(13)
Select bibliography	422	(5)
Index	427