Such emotion-laden music, from a man who shows absolutely no affect. Fascinating. He put it all in his music! Of course, at this time, the bombs were falling all around and the world he knew was being destroyed.
His daughter in law was Jewish and 25 members of her extended family perished in concentration camps. Strauss used his influence to keep her from harm but despite his efforts he couldn't save the others from the murderous Nazi regime.
The contrast between Strauss's staid (indeed bland) persona and his ravishingly emotional music has amazed more than one. On being personally introduced to Strauss, someone once said, "THAT's the man who composed Elektra?" He probably expected someone who looked like Beethoven.
its so amazing the way R. Strauss conducts.:-)))...this very difficult beautiful masterpiece almost with one hand.conducted :-)) bravissimo Strauss!!!!!!...I´ve seen so many conducters almost flying of stage with there histerical flying arms and body moves....they should take lessons by watching STRAUSS conducts. thanks for sharing:-))
michael vier What matters is the result. Doing almost no movement resulting in a poor performance or a lot of movements providing a colourfur masterpiece, what will matter in the end is how good it will be.
A "matter-of-factly--straight-as-an-arrow"--not a single smile on his face---meanwhile the orchestra is "playing like crazy"----in a word---INTERESTING!!!!!!
Although deadpan, there is plenty to learn from Strauss. His stick speaks wonders and he does change tempi as he sees fit. Sometime emphasizing a certain passage, sometimes just keeping strict time so that ANY change in his baton is immediately noticed. Notice @ 8:01 how he slows the tempo. Of course he knows when it's time to start a fresh wax cylinder! The days of 78 RPM's...In retrospect, too bad the entire video does not feature Strauss' face and baton with the camera facing him. Artur Nikisch @ 32:40 conducting Tchaikovsky 6th Symphony--no sound.
The performance is great, but I find even more interest in the middle portions where he rehearses some of the finer points with the orchestra. Though Strauss was always self-deprecating about his conducting, those who played under him considered him among the greatest of maestros. Even quite late in life, musicians commented that when he took the podium, they felt compelled to play their best. There are many recordings of Strauss conducting his works available on RU-vid. I think most modern interpreters would do well to listen to them and learn a few things from the master.
A chelo player from Czech Philarmonic orchestra who played once under Richard Strauss told me many years ago that the great composer was also a great conductor because with almost no movements at all he got the best sound from the orchestra, whereas others who moved and gesticulated a lot did not get the beautiful sound that Strauss did.
I remember reading somewhere that Strauss considered himself a far better composer than conductor, and that he preferred to have the best available conduct the premiere. He could hear what he wanted, but had difficulty conveying that to the orchestra. Hence, the premieres of Arabella and Capriccio were conducted by Clemens Kraus.
The Nikisch video is fascinating! You can SEE he was a great interpreter. With Strauss, he's his happiest when it's all over. A very "puckish" voice, no?
The conductor at 33 min is Arthur Nikisch, conductor of Berlin Philharmonic from 1895-1922. See www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/history/arthur-nikisch/
There was +/- four or five years ago a video on RU-vid (now unfortuantelly not longer avaliable...), in wich Herbert von Karajan gave a lesson of conducting to one young conductor by trying with first minutes of Till Eulenspiegel. I hope somebody saw that vid too? I wish I could see it again, so if Yoi know, where can I find it besides RU-vid I would be gratefull for any tipps/links.
Fascinating. These are long "takes" shot to be edited into the master take that begins at 14:24. Also, one should see the footage that begins at 32:32 - silent footage of Artur Nikisch conducting the Berlin Philharmonic from 1913!
I always thought Strauss was a composer from the past, I didn't know there was recordings of him, from his works I always had an image of him like Mozart, from the 19th century. That proves that something doesn't need to be old to be good (I know it's very old by now, but compared to even older composers).
Great. He doesn't raise his left hand for two minutes. His waiting on violin solo at 5 minutes great! OOPS at 8:30! Check out out cellos on left...huge orchestra, all wearing ties. 15:30 heartfelt. More appreciation 24:20 and retake. 32:30 major insert historical sideways footage till the end.
It's a shame that the video and audio are not properly synchronized....the audio is ca.. a half tone higher than it should be, which is why Strauss' conducting appears behind...any way of correcting this?
This must be from one of the Vienna concerts held to celebrate his eightieth birthday. It's been claimed that the Vienna Philharmonic played at their very best for them - there is certainly a marvellous performance of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme music from one of them.
It's fascinating to see Strauss grimace every now and then at otherwise seemingly imperceptible mistakes, but he probably thought "it's good enough and no once will notice;" especially since he'd like the performance to move along before the Allied bombings resumed.
Du sollst beim Dirigieren nicht schwitzen, nur das Publikum soll warm werden. Einem jungen Kapellmeister ins Stammbuch geschrieben (1922) von Richard Strauss
This is the classic interpretation that was taught to the CSO in Chicago and still employed by veteran members of the orchestra today when performed. To me it is very stirring.
Talk about an uptight scene, wow! I understand that Richard was renown in his day as a fabulous conductor, yet this is not that. He seems to be "phoning this one in" as some would say. Why? This performance looks like a radio broadcast complete with spot breaks, and a countdown clock for the next one. For example: the tempos seem quick, he frequently looks to his right over the orchestra perhaps a producer pointing to his watch. And we also have 1944 wartime Europe and a VPO with a lot of desks where many of his friends and collogues once sat now occupied by "state approved" musicians. I have enjoyed a lifelong love of Strauss' music and in particular this piece, I know it well, and so I offer my humble opinion that this was not his best and he knew it. Also, as for the brass section; I think he meant trumpet players, don't even look at them lest you lend the slightest ray of encouragement.
"Sono nato da un corno e da un clarinetto. Babbo corno mi dipinse con voce possente...mamma clarinetto mi volle invece sornione e buffonesco. Appena fui abbastanza grande, come tema intendo, mi mandarono alla scuola dei maestri archi, che mi raccolsero, illustrandomi i diversi episodi di cui sarei stato protagonista. Richard Strauss li chiamò "Lustige Streiche" (tiri burloni) perchè... il resto leggetevelo nel libro di Massimo Celegato "L'apprendista stregone e altri fantastici racconti musicali" -Nicola Calabria editore. Mi piace lo stile del ragazzo! Vs affez.mo Till Eulenspiegel
this is gods music.........strauss was was not an Atheist........no great Music was ever composed by an Atheist.......Facts and love from vienna Austria........where it all began,.Haydn,.Mozart,.Beethoven,.schubert,.etc..........
@@peterhelbich3334 Prove what, exactly? That they were atheist, or that they wrote "great" music? Anyway, it's fairly preposterous to argue that you can only create good music if you are religious, surely? For one thing, that idea would generate a considerable ideological bias towards earlier music, since religion has gradually been disentangled from European society, and you might wish to interrogate that. Of course, we are only talking about Western art music: there's so much other great (i.e. excellent, good) music in other styles/by other people/other parts of the world. You'll notice, also, that I distinguish between "great" and "good" music: I'm invoking the idea that music becomes "great" as a result of its cultural situation and not just its musical quality (i.e. "good")... e.g. Beethoven's music has been venerated since his death because of its association with the emerging concept of a German nation-state/romanticised genius complex etc. (in addition to its high quality), whereas other musicians who were extremely famous in their day are now almost forgotten... but it's too late at night for me to go into that.
