Unsung Richard Strauss

[adriano]

The interlude from "Intermezzo" and the sextet from "Capriccio" are performed sometimes - as also Strauss' pieces for Piano and Orchestra.

Strauss' "Panathenäenzug" (like "Parergon") for the left hand and orchestra was promoted by Kurt Leimer, particularly after Strauss had given him a 3-years exclusive right to perform it. After a 1947 Salzburg performance, to which Strauss had composed an extra cadenza for Leimer, the soloist got also the work's dedication. There is a CD re-issue of a 1972 Colosseum LP of Leimer's interpretation with the Nürnberger Symphoniker.
(About Leimer as a composer, there are some wild stories: Last year I've met with a person whose friend was a musician who affirmed to be the actual composer of Leimer's 3 piano concerti. That they had been "corrected", or "orchestrated" was already a murmur since a long time...).
In Zurich we have a Kurt Leimer Foundation, allowing 10 particularly gifted conservatory finalist to participate to 3 public masterclasses.

On 29th September, Franz Welser-Möst performed in Cleveland a (to my ears a bit boring) "Symphonic Fantasy from Die Frau ohne Schatten" which I had never heard before:

https://bachtrack.com/de_DE/review-lang-lang-welser-most-cleveland-september-2018

(in the same concert, Lang Lang played Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 24)

Gerard Schwarz and also JoAnn Falleta have recorded this "Fantasy" for Naxos

[semloh]

Yes, the Intermezzo (sextet) from Capriccio is beautiful music, and yet rarely gets an outing!

[kolaboy]

I've always had a soft spot for Schlagobers.... more so than the Joseph ballet. The former seems to flow with a bit more easeful decadence than the latter...

[adriano]

Yes, kolaboy. Anyway, there is a lot of decadence in nearly all of Strauss's music anyway 

[matesic]

An interesting point; I instinctively feel I know what hadrianus means, but what exactly is "decadence" in music? For some strange reason much of Strauss conjures up images of scantily clad women drinking nectar from the skulls of dead warriors. Or is that just me?

[adriano]

First of all - I am not an expert - and: Decadence is not pejorative meaning!

Decadence in the arts can be defined as a movement taking social decadence as a subject - considering the European social turmoil before World War I - an epoch which produced so many masterworks of such different musical styles! Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" and Puccini's operas were produced in those years!
But Deacdence is not (only) in the subjects, but also a question of style - and, in music, instrumentation! Schreker's earlier operas are a perfect example.
In France, the Decadent movement was very strong - and productive in all kind of arts (Some of Massenet's and Reyer's operas belonging to this genre). Sometimes I also consider some impressionistic works belonging to the Decadent movement: Debussy's "Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien" (one of my desert-island pieces, together with Delius's "Mass of Life").
In Russia we had Skrjabin (who was also suspected of living a "decadent" private life - but one must never believe what the Russian say).
Exoticism is a very important element of artistic Deacadence.
Austrian Jugendstil movement had also a huge influence.
Strauss was from Munich, but listening to many of his works one could think he was an Austrian. Ignorant music-lovers do still mistake him for an Austrian.
There is also the Viennese psycho-analytical aspect (Sigmund Freud) which inspired to morbid and sexual subjects (Schreker! Alban Berg!) and also dealed with dream importance . Berg once told that, without Schreker's "Der Ferne Klang", he would never had been able to write his "Lulu".
In England there was a strong literary and painter's decadent movement (Wilde, Dawson, Johnson, Beardsley, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Alma-Tadema (on of my favourite British painters :-)
In my opinion, some of Frederick Delius's work could also be defined as "decadent".
The actual German decadent movement was of a more modernistic, avant-gardistic kind (Kurt Weill etc.) and often Jazz-oriented. But decadent subjects were used. There was also more expressionism in Germany - but many expressionistic artists produced really decadent works...

This proves that one should be more flexible in using drawer system in categorizing the arts and its epochs.

Hope this text does not appear too confused or wild...

[matesic]

I'd have to disagree somewhat, in that when applied to an individual or the arts "decadent" is generally construed in a pejorative or disapproving way as you'd expect from its literal meaning "in decay" - a bad stench given off by dying bodies or rotten matter? I wonder who first used the term in the context of music? I'm not aware of it as the name of a movement, but rather an atmosphere particularly associated with late romanticism. Would we call the music of Strauss et al "decadent" if romanticism hadn't "died" or been largely superseded during his lifetime? Music is full of such metaphors that don't actually make sense in terms of the music per se but relate to contemporary historico-social parallels. To get even more cod-philosophical, I even wonder why some notes are termed "high" and others "low", as if they float in the air or sink to the ground!

[adriano]

This is just what I meant with my posting, matesic. It's just a definition to make a difference with other (equally discussbale) defintions. The term "in decay" is by no means right.

Merriam-Webster has this explanatory text:
Decadent - literature : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a group of late 19th century French and English writers tending toward artificial and unconventional subjects and subtilized style : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the decadents.

This is perfectly applicable to other forms of art.

But, again: I hate classifications; I just wanted to show what happened in those times.

[matesic]

Google reminds me that the Latin root means "falling down" which isn't exactly a good thing, nor are any of the definitions. Oscar Wilde might have relished the label but I don't think Strauss would have! But I understand you perfectly when you say there is a lot of "decadence" in his music.

[kolaboy]

I certainly do not consider "decadent"  to be a pejorative when applied to the arts. I DO think that post-war Strauss had about 94% of the decadence wrung out of him - which is quite understandable (Metamorphosen, Oboe Concerto...).

[matesic]

I'm sure the term was initially used pejoritatively to describe an art form or style considered to be "in decline". Of course, history has shown that there was plenty of life in the old romantic dog yet. I think the proof that there's nothing literally or even metaphorically "decadent" in Strauss's music is that during the Nazi era it was the modernists who were labelled "degenerate" ("entartete") which according to google is synonymous.  But as is so often the case, any disagreement we have boils down to the meaning and usage of the words we choose

[adriano]

Exactly, so matesic. So let's still use the term "decadent" as a well-established (positive) term in connection with some art currents of that time.

[Alan Howe]

Moving on...

[adriano]

Richard Strauss's most unsung stage work is surely the Singspiel "Des Esels Schatten" ("The Donkey's Shadow", 1949) - it's actually his last composition. It was premiered in 1964 by a student's ensemble.
It is based on Christoph Martin Wieland's version of an old Greek story by Plutarch about the trial of a dentist from Athens who had hired a donkey. The man just needed a rest, so he sat down in the donkey's shadow. The owner complained that he had hired only the donkey - and not its shadow. The trial could only be closed after the donkey's death by hunger: the poor animal had been completely forgotten during these long discussions.
Criticism of absurd bureaucratic trial procedures also inspired Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt to a brilliant sarcastic play on the same story - after all, such absurd trial procedures are still taking place today. Dürrenmatt also inspired musicians: Gottfried von Einem's great opera "Der Besuch der alten Dame" is based on Dürrenmatt's play of the same title. The title part was premiered at the Vienna Staatsoper by Christa Ludwig and a great supporting cast (there is an Amadeo CD); Astrid Varnay and Regina Resnik also sung it.
(Gilbert & Sullivan's "Trial by Jury" is another musical critcism of legal practices).

Karl Anton Rickenbacher recorded Strauss's "Donkey" Singspiel (with Peter Ustinov as a narrator) on the Koch label in 1998, in a volume of the series "Richard Strauss, the unknown"

[Ebubu]

"I've always had a soft spot for Schlagobers.... more so than the Joseph ballet."

Schlagobers is one of the very rare Strauss works I've not been able to put my hands on.  I only have the short concert suite on the Kempe set, but it seems that the complete version once recorded by Denon is out of print, or outrageously expensive on the net. 

I think some of the most underrated music by Strauss is his choral music.  Try Die Tageszeiten, for orchestra and men's chorus, it's a true masterpiece.  Of course, his Deutsche Mottete, and other stuff for a cappella chorus, are just glorious and awfully difficult to perform.