|
Richard Georg Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Along with Gustav Mahler, he represents the late flowering of German Romanticism, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style. Strauss's compositional output began in 1870 when he was just six years old and lasted until his death nearly eighty years later. While his output of works encompasses nearly every type of classical compositional form, Strauss achieved his greatest success with tone poems and operas. His first tone poem to achieve wide acclaim was '' Don Juan'', and this was followed by other lauded works of this kind, including '' Death and Transfiguration'', '' Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks'', '' Also sprach Zarathustra'', '' Don Quixote'', '' Ein Heldenl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Liebermann
Max Liebermann (20 July 1847 – 8 February 1935) was a German painter and printmaker, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany and continental Europe. In addition to his activity as an artist, he also assembled an important collection of French Impressionist works. The son of a Jewish banker, Liebermann studied art in Weimar, Paris, and the Netherlands. After living and working for some time in Munich, he returned to Berlin in 1884, where he remained for the rest of his life. He later chose scenes of the bourgeoisie, as well as aspects of his garden near Lake Wannsee, as motifs for his paintings. Noted for his portraits, he did more than 200 commissioned ones over the years, including of Albert Einstein and Paul von Hindenburg. Liebermann was honored on his 50th birthday with a solo exhibition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, and the following year he was elected to the academy. From 1899 to 1911 he led the premier avant-garde formation in Germany ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salome (opera)
''Salome'', Op. 54, is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss. The libretto is Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of the 1891 French play '' Salomé'' by Oscar Wilde, edited by the composer. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer. The opera is famous (at the time of its premiere, infamous) for its " Dance of the Seven Veils". The final scene is frequently heard as a concert-piece for dramatic sopranos. Composition history Oscar Wilde originally wrote his ''Salomé'' in French. Strauss saw the Lachmann version of the play in Max Reinhardt's production at the Kleines Theater in Berlin on 15 November 1902, and immediately set to work on an opera. The play's formal structure was well-suited to musical adaptation. Wilde himself described ''Salomé'' as containing "refrains whose recurring ''motifs'' make it so like a piece of music and bind it together as a ballad". Strauss pared down Lachmann's German text to what he saw as its essentials, and in the process r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Alpine Symphony
''An Alpine Symphony'' (''Eine Alpensinfonie''), Op. 64, is a tone poem for large orchestra written by German composer Richard Strauss in 1915. It is one of Strauss's largest non-operatic works; the score calls for about 125 players and a typical performance usually lasts around 50 minutes. The program of ''An Alpine Symphony'' depicts the experiences of eleven hours (from daybreak just before dawn to the following nightfall) spent climbing an Alpine mountain. History Strauss's ''An Alpine Symphony'' was completed in 1915, eleven years after the completion of its immediate predecessor in the genre of the tone poem, ''Symphonia Domestica''. In 1911, Strauss wrote that he was "torturing imselfwith a symphony – a job that, when all's said and done, amuses me even less than chasing cockroaches".Marc Mandel"Richard Strauss: ''An Alpine Symphony'', Op. 64" ''Boston Symphony Orchestra''; accessed 2 March 2009. One point of influence comes from Strauss's love of nature. As a bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphonia Domestica
''Symphonia Domestica'', Op. 53, is a tone poem for large orchestra by Richard Strauss. The work is a musical reflection of the secure domestic life so valued by the composer himself and, as such, harmoniously conveys daily events and family life. History and composition In 1898, Strauss became the chief conductor of the Royal Court Opera in Berlin. It was at this point in his life that the composer took a keen interest in his own circumstances and turned his attention to his status and personal history. When he began composing the ''Symphonia Domestica'', he intended it to be the sequel to ''Ein Heldenleben'', the next installment of the autobiography of the now-successful artist. He worked on the piece during 1903, finishing it on New Year's Eve, in Charlottenburg. The piece is scored for piccolo, 3 flutes, 2 oboes, oboe d'amore, English horn, clarinet in D, 3 clarinets (2 in B, 1 in A), bass clarinet in B, 4 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 saxophones (soprano in C, alto in F, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ein Heldenleben
''Ein Heldenleben'' (''A Hero's Life''), Op. 40, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898. It was his eighth work in the genre, and exceeded any of its predecessors in its orchestral demands. Generally agreed to be autobiographical in nature despite contradictory statements on the matter by the composer, the work contains more than thirty quotations from Strauss's earlier works, including ''Also sprach Zarathustra'', ''Till Eulenspiegel'', ''Don Quixote'', ''Don Juan'', and ''Death and Transfiguration''. Background Strauss began work on the piece while staying in a Bavarian mountain resort in July 1898. He proposed to write a heroic work in the mould of Beethoven's ''Eroica'' Symphony: "It is entitled 'A Hero's Life', and while it has no funeral march, it does have lots of horns, horns being quite the thing to express heroism. Thanks to the healthy country air, my sketch has progressed well and I hope to finish by New Year's Day."Glass, Herbert''Ein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Quixote (Strauss)
''Don Quixote'', Op. 35 is a tone poem by Richard Strauss for cello, viola, and orchestra. Subtitled ''Phantastische Variationen über ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters'' (''Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character''), the work is based on the novel ''Don Quixote de la Mancha'' by Miguel de Cervantes. Strauss composed this work in Munich in 1897. The premiere took place in Cologne on 8 March 1898, with Friedrich Grützmacher as the cello soloist and Franz Wüllner as the conductor. The score is 45 minutes long and is written in theme and variations form, with the solo cello representing Don Quixote, and the solo viola, tenor tuba, and bass clarinet depicting his squire Sancho Panza. The second variation depicts an episode where Don Quixote encounters a herd of sheep and perceives them as an approaching army. Strauss uses dissonant flutter-tonguing in the brass to emulate the bleating of the sheep, an early instance of this extended technique. Strauss later quoted t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Also Sprach Zarathustra
', Op. 30 (, ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' or ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'') is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical 1883–1885 novel ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''."Richard Strauss – Tone-Poem, ''Death and Transfiguration'', Opus 24" (and other works), Old And Sold The composer conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in . A typical performance lasts half an hour. The initial – titled "Sunrise" in the composer's programme notes – became well kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
''Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks'' (german: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, ), Opus number, Op. 28, is a tone poem written in 1894–95 by Richard Strauss. It chronicles the misadventures and pranks of the German peasant folk hero Till Eulenspiegel, who is represented by two themes. The first, played by the French horn, horn, is a lilting melody that reaches a peak, falls downward, and ends in three long, loud notes, each progressively lower. The second, for D clarinet, is crafty and wheedling, suggesting a trickster doing what he does best. (Till Eulenspiegel is a well-known Schnickelfritz.) Analysis The work opens with a "Once upon a time" theme, : \relative c as a solo horn bursts in with two repetitions of the first Till theme. : \relative c' The theme is taken by the rest of the orchestra in a rondo form (which Strauss spelled in its French form, rondeau), and this beginning section concludes with the tutti orchestra repeating two notes. The clarinet theme is h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death And Transfiguration
''Death and Transfiguration'' (german: Tod und Verklärung, link=no), Op. 24, is a tone poem for orchestra by Richard Strauss. Strauss began composition in the late summer of 1888 and completed the work on 18 November 1889. The work is dedicated to the composer's friend Friedrich Rosch. The music depicts the death of an artist. At Strauss's request, this was described in a poem by his friend Alexander Ritter as an interpretation of Death and Transfiguration, after it was composed. As the man lies dying, thoughts of his life pass through his head: his childhood innocence, the struggles of his manhood, the attainment of his worldly goals; and at the end, he receives the longed-for transfiguration "from the infinite reaches of heaven". Performance history Strauss conducted the premiere on 21 June 1890 at the Eisenach Festival (on the same programme as the premiere of his '' Burleske in D minor'' for piano and orchestra). He also conducted this work for his first appearance in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Juan (Strauss)
''Don Juan'', Opus number, Op. 20, is a tone poem in E major for large orchestra written by the German composer Richard Strauss in 1888. The work is based on ''Don Juans Ende'', a play derived from an unfinished 1844 retelling of the tale by poet Nikolaus Lenau after the Don Juan legend which originated in Renaissance-era Spain. Strauss reprinted three excerpts from the play in his score. In Lenau's rendering, Don Juan's promiscuity springs from his determination to find the ideal woman. Despairing of ever finding her, he ultimately surrenders to melancholy and wills his own death. It is singled out by Carl Dahlhaus as a "musical symbol of fin-de-siècle Modernism (music), modernism", particularly for the "breakaway mood" of its opening bars. The premiere of ''Don Juan'' took place on 11 November 1889 in Weimar, where Strauss, then twenty-five, served as Court Kapellmeister; he conducted the orchestra of the Weimar Opera. The work, composed when Strauss was only twenty-four years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_1.jpg "Click for more on -> Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks")
