Richard Strauss (1864 -1949) Aus Italien, Op. 16
Die
Liebe der Danae (Symphonic fragment)
Waltz-Sequence
No.2 from Der Rosenkavalier
The
German composer and conductor Richard Strauss represents a remarkable extension of the
work of Liszt and Wagner, of the former in the symphonic poems of his earlier career and
of the latter in his operas, where he uses an orchestra of Wagnerian proportions in a
framework that owes more to Mozart. Born in Munich, the son of a distinguished horn-player
and his second wife, a member of a rich brewing family, Strauss enjoyed a good general
education at the Ludwigsgymnasium in Munich, while pursuing musical studies with the help
of distinguished colleagues of his father. Before he left school in 1882 he had already
enjoyed some success as a composer , continuing during his brief period at Munich
University, with the composition of a violin concerto, a horn concerto and a cello sonata.
By the age of 21 he had been appointed assistant conductor to the well known orchestra at
Meiningen under Hans von Bülow, whom he succeeded in the same year.
In
1886 Strauss resigned from Meiningen and began the series of tone-poems that seemed to
extend to the utmost limit the extra-musical content of the form. The symphonic fantasy
Aus Italien in 1886 was followed by Macbeth, Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, and,
after a gap of a few years, Till Eulenspiegel, Also
sprach Zarathustra, Don Ouixote and Ein
Heldenleben. Meanwhile he was establishing himself as a conductor of high
reputation, directing the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for a season and taking
appointments at Munich and then at the opera in Berlin, where he later became conductor of
the Court Orchestra.
The
new century brought renewed attention to the composition of opera, a medium in which he
had initially been not particularly successful. The first performance of Salome in Dresden
in 1905 was followed in 1909 by Elektra in the same city, with a libretto by the writer
with whom he was to enjoy a fruitful collaboration, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. Der Rosenkavalier, a romantic opera set in the world
of Mozart, was staged at the Court Opera in Dresden in 1911, followed by ten further
operas, ending only with Capriccio, staged at the Staatsoper in Munich in 1942.
It
was unfortunate that Strauss, in common with certain other musicians of the greatest
eminence, was compromised by association with the National Socialist Government that came
to power in Germany in 1933. His acquiescence, when given the position of president of the
Reichsmusikkammer and his ingenuous willingness to take the place of Bruno Walter at a
Berlin concert, when the latter had been compelled to withdraw by threats of public
disorder, and of Toscanini, who had withdrawn from projected performances at Bayreuth in
voluntary protest at anti-Semitic policies, were later remembered. The fact that his
daughter-in-law was Jewish and that she and his grandchildren had to be protected may have
influenced the course of apparent complaisance that he chose to take, a choice that
brought its own difficulties in 1945, when he withdrew for a time to Switzerland,
returning to his house at Garmisch only in May 1949, four months before his death.
After
his resignation from Meiningen in 1886, Strauss left for a holiday in Italy, made possible
through his father's generosity. As he travelled he made musical sketches of the places he
visited. These later took shape as a symphonic fantasy, a loose description of a work cast
in the four movements of a traditional symphony, not yet absorbed into the new
single-movement form that Strauss was to develop. Aus
Italien opens in the Roman Campagna in a musical idiom that is immediately
recognisable. This prelude, as the composer explained, records his feelings at the sight
of the Roman countryside in sunshine, as seen from the Villa d'Este at Tivoli. The second
movement, in the ancient Roman forum, recalls with nostalgia the glories of the past, now
in ruins. On the shore at Sorrento depicts nature, described by Strauss as the sound of
the wind in the leaves, the songs of birds and the distant sound of the sea. For the last
movement the composer thought he had found a Neapolitan folk-song. This was in fact the
popular trite Funiculi, funicula by Luigi
Denza, which here is intermingled with reminiscences of the earlier movements, providing,
in geographical confusion, an element of musical unity.
Hugo
von Hoffmannsthal died in 1929, leaving the libretto for the opera Arabella complete. Strauss later embarked on a
collaboration with Stefan Zweig, to whom the National Socialist Government had the
strongest racial objections. Zweig refused the suggestion of secret collaboration, but was
willing to act in advisory capacity. Strauss was left with the services of the historian
Josef Gregor, whose literary talents were limited. The opera Die Liebe der Danae used a libretto by Gregor, based
on an original draft by von Hoffmannsthal combining the legends of Danae, wooed by Zeus in
the form of a shower of gold, and King Midas, who turned to gold all he touched. Through
the persistence of Clemens Krauss, whose advice had been of considerable use to the
composer, the opera was scheduled for the Salzburg Festival of 1944, when the composer's
eightieth birthday was also to be celebrated. In the turmoil of that year it proved
impossible to do more than hold a dress rehearsal of Die
Liebe der Danae, in the presence of the composer, and the first public
performance took place only after his death, in 1952. Krauss then made from the score an
orchestral arrangement, describing it as a Symphonic Fragment, for which he modestly
declined to use his own name. The Symphonic Fragment consists of a linked series of
excerpts from the second and third acts of the opera.
The
first performance of Der Rosenkavalier took
place in Dresden in 1911 and further performances followed at other major opera houses.
The work is a miraculous blend of comedy and gentle melancholy, with its story of the love
of the Marschallin and the young Octavian, whom she renounces to allow him to marry
Sophia, daughter of a newly ennobled merchant. Coupled with this is
the intrigue that leads to the deception practised on the boorish Baron Ochs, induced to
make an assignation with Octavian, who has met Ochs when disguised as a maid-servant of
the Marschallin to avoid detection. The third act, from which the so-called second Rosenkavalier Waltz Sequence is taken, is set in an
inn, where the disguised Octavian plans to turn the tables on Baron Ochs, who has planned
to make a financially advantageous marriage with Sophia. The gulling of the Baron is
accompanied by a series of waltzes, culminating in the appearance of ghostly figures and
one claiming to be his wife, accompanied by four young children, who greet him as their
father. The discomfiture of the Baron leads to a happy ending, at least for Octavian and
Sophia.
The
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
The
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra has benefited considerably from the work of its
distinguished conductors. These include Vaclav Talich (1949 - 1952), Ludovit Rajter,
Ladislav Slovak and Libor Pesek. Zdenek Kosler has also had a long and distinguished
association with the orchestra and has conducted many of its most successful recordings,
among them the complete symphonies of Dvorak.
During
the years of its professional existence the Slovak Philharmonic has worked under the
direction of many of the most distinguished conductors from abroad, from Eugene Goossens
and Malcolm Sargent to Claudio Abbado, Antal Dorati and Riccardo Muti. The orchestra has
undertaken many tours abroad, including visits to Germany and Japan, and has made a large
number of recordings for the Czech Opus label, for Supraphon, for Hungaroton and, in
recent years, for the Marco Polo and Naxos labels. These recordings include works by
Glière, Spohr, Respighi, Rubinstein, Bax, Suchon and Miaskovsky and have brought the
orchestra a growing international reputation and praise from the critics of leading
international publications.
Zdenek
Kosler
The
Czech conductor Zdenek Kosler studied under Karel Ancerl at the Prague Academy of Arts,
and distinguished himself early in his career at the Besançon Conductors' Competition and
in the Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition in New York. The first prize in the second of these
enabled him to work as assistant-conductor with Leonard Bernstein for one year.
In
Czechoslovakia Kosler began as conductor of the Prague opera ensemble, before becoming
chief conductor and music director of the opera in Olomouc and Ostrava. He spent a short
time as permanent conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, before moving to Berlin,
where he was appointed Music Director of the Komische Oper in 1965. In 1971 he became
chief conductor of the Slovak National Theatre Opera, undertaking engagements at this same
time with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducting the Czech Philharmonic
Orchestra in Prague, in addition to guest appearances with major orchestras abroad, in
Europe, Canada and the Far East.
As permanent conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Zdenek Kosler has travelled
widely. From 1980 until 1985 he was chief conductor and artistic director of the Prague
National Theatre Opera to which he will return as chief conductor in 1990. He has received
the highest national honour, the title National Artist, from the Czechoslovakian
government, while winning awards abroad for his recordings.