Short biography of post-romantic composer Richard Strauss, his life and major works. He is famous for opera Der Rosenkavalier ('The Cavalier of the Rose').

Richard Strauss (1864-1949), German composer, conductor and musical director, is one of the greatest composers of orchestral music the last years of 19th-century Romantic era. He wrote tone poems, and famous for operas Der Rosenkavalier, Salome and Electra. Strauss was considered a successor of Richard Wagner.

Early Training and Education

Strauss has no relation to the “waltz king” Johann Strauss Jr. He was born in Munich on the 11th of June, 1864. His father, a professional horn player and a singer in the St Petersburg Imperial Opera, gave him a musical grounding exclusively in the classics. He had piano lessons at age four and started composing at age six. He then went briefly to Munich University but had no formal tuition in composition. There he became a friend of Hans von Bulow, first husband of Cosima Wagner, daughter of Franz Liszt.

Early Career and Works

He had several works given in Munich, including a symphony when he was 17, and the next year a wind serenade in Dresden and a violin concerto in Vienna. Noticeably, a number of his fifteen operas focused on the dominance of women. It is not surprising that Richard Strauss's wife, Pauline de Ahna, a professional soprano was powerful in her own way, nevertheless he had great affection and regard for her.

Musical Director of Opera Houses

Between the years 1894 until 1919, Strauss took appointed jobs as musical director of opera houses, for instance, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera.

He also became music director under the Nazis, but was dismissed for working with a Jewish librettist. He was eventually cleared by the Allies of Nazi collaboration.

More Compositions

At first he wrote tone poems, such as Don Juan 1889, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks 1895, and Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra). He then moved on to operas with Salome and Electra, sensational operas, however, they exhibited much gloom. Richard Strauss further reverted to a more traditional style with Der Rosenkavalier ('The Cavalier of the Rose' or 'The Knight of the Rose'), considered his most famous work, with its lighthearted and comic aura.

Recording

Strauss also recorded a number of his own music, as well as German and Austrian composers like Mozart and Beethoven.

Final Years and Legacy

Strauss died on September 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria. He followed the German Romantic tradition but had a strong style of his own, characterized by his bold and colourful orchestration. It can be said without contradiction that Richard Strauss outshone some of the greatest Romantic composers at the closing of the 19th-century through his orchestral brilliance, particularly, in his symphonic poems.

Symphonic Poems by Richard Strauss

• Don Juan 1888
• Death and Transfiguration 1889
• Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks 1895
• Also Sprach Zarathustra ('Thus Spake Zoroaster') 1896
• Don Quixote 1897
• Ein Heldenleben ('A Hero's Life') 1898

Operas by Richard Strauss

• Feuersnot 1901
• Salome 1905
• Elektra 1909
• Der Rosenkavalier 1911
• Die Frau ohne Schatten 1914-17
• The The Egyptian Helen 1924-27
• Arabella 1932
• The Silent Woman 1935
• Capriccio 1941
• Des Esels Schatten (The Donkey's Shadow) 1947-49

Sources:

Dictionary of Composers and Their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference (1987)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan (1994)