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 Richard Georg Strauss 150th Anniversary of Birth Scott 1570 (2014) In keeping with a tradition of honoring the greats of art and music, Vatican City issued a stamp in 2014 commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Richard Georg Strauss, who was born on June 11, 1864. A German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist, Strauss's career spanned close to eighty years. He is viewed as one of the most critically acclaimed and prominent composers of the late Romantic/early modern eras. While Strauss's works encompass nearly every genre of classical musical composition, he achieved his greatest success with tone poems (such as his widely-acclaimed Don Juan) and operas (including Salome, Elektra and Capriccio). He also wrote two symphonies and other instrumental works. Considered the successor to Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner in the line of great German composers, Strauss began composing and conducting in 1883, and his fame quickly spread throughout Europe and the Americas. Mozart, Wagner and Johannes Brahms were the artists who were the most influential on his career.  Richard Strauss, 5th Anniversary of Death Michel 124, Berlin (1954) From Wikimedia Commons, in the public domain Strauss's career became associated with Nazi Germany in 1933 when he was appointed to two important musical/cultural positions: head of the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Chamber of Music) and principal conductor of the Bayreuth Festival (which celebrated the music of Wagner, who was greatly admired by Hitler). These appointments led to Strauss being sometimes labeled as a Nazi collaborator. However, it is known that his daughter-in-law, Alice, was Jewish and much of Strauss's apparent cooperation with the Nazi Party was done in order to save her life and the lives of her children/his grandchildren. He also used his post in an attempt to advance copyright protections for composers, and to preserve performances of works by composers such as Gustav Mahler and Felix Mendelssohn, banned in Nazi Germany due to their Jewish heritage. He was eventually dismissed from his positions within the German cultural hierarchy in 1935. In 1948 he was cleared of any wrongdoing by a denazification tribunal in Munich. Richard Strauss died on September 8, 1949. REFERENCES: |
