Richard Strauss

Herbert Francis Peyser (1886 - 1953)

There was not much truly spectacular about the course of [Strauss's] life, which was most happily free from the material troubles which bedeviled the existence of so many great masters... If “Salome” and “Elektra”, “Ein Heldenleben” and “Till Eulenspiegel” were in their day scandalously “sensational” did not the whirligig of time reveal them as incontestable products of genius, irrespective of inequalities and flaws? However Richard Strauss compares in the last analysis with this or that master he contributed to the language of music idioms, procedures and technical accomplishments typical of the confused years and conflicting ideals out of which they were born. His works are most decidedly of an age, whether or not they are for all time! From Author's Foreword.

Genre(s): Biography & Autobiography, Music

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Foreword David Wales
00:02:36
Play 01 Part 1 David Wales
00:28:38
Play 02 Part 2 David Wales
00:28:31
Play 03 Part 3 David Wales
00:32:02