Richard Strauss

Summary

Dominique Pagani places Richard Strauss among the post-Wagnerians and considers him the most popular of them in Germany1. He repeatedly distinguishes him from Johann Strauss, the composer of The Blue Danube and of waltzes, and sees in him a summit of German music23. He describes him as a "post-Wagnerian Handel" of protean vigour4, always swept along by the "philharmonic gust", with operas scored for gigantic orchestras5. He reads Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel and Ein Heldenleben from the angle of the symphonic poem, and therefore of programme music. In his view, the programme in these works is not binding: it gives a general tone or a literary idea so that the music does not get lost in the indefinite6. He presents Capriccio as a pocket opera that raises the question of whether words or music should come first. He sees Parsifal as foreshadowing Strauss's most expressionist works, such as Salome. He also notes that after the war Strauss was rejected, like Bruckner and Mahler. Finally, he mentions Ariadne auf Naxos in connection with the Cretan cycle.

1. 1Wagner and his interpreters, approaching Clouscard, Marx = Theseus?31 Mar 2021 · 43:23
2. 2#10 The two Klemperers and Bruno Walter in Wagner18 Jan 2021 · 26:18
3. 3Nietzsche, or the Great Ninny7 Feb 2023 · 6:12
4. 4#5 Happiness versus the death drive in music11 Dec 2020 · 33:36
5. 5#10.4 From Lascaux to modern music, the permanence of the political stakes in aesthetics3 Nov 2021 · 2:01:43
6. 6#16 Programme music, pure music10 Mar 2021 · 45:39

Summary produced automatically from 14 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.