Richard Strauss : Man, Musician, Enigma

Rating:
Summary: An eye and ear opener - why did it take this long?
Review: I have grown up reading Michael Kennedy's biographies of such great English composers as Vaughan-Williams and Edward Elgar. So I eagerly picked-up his latest biography of Richard Strauss partly because of what I deemed to be Kennedy's objective approach to his subjects, and also because Strauss seemed to be a deeply held secret not meant to be shared with us ordinary listeners (in other words, there wasn't much else available).

Kennedy seems to have slightly more passion for Strauss it turns out than for RVW or Elgar, or at least enough moxy to blow the cover off some well established sacred cows. I know that I was not expecting to read exactly what I read.

If you are even vaguely interested in the music of Strauss or even if you are simply intereted in the history of Germany from 1900 to 1950, then this is a very interesting read.

Very well done!

Rating:
Summary: Admirable, craftsmanlike vindication of Strauss' achievement
Review: It's appropriate that this admirable volume should have appeared in 1999, with the 50th anniversary of Richard Strauss' death occurring on September 8 of that year, and with (by bizarre coincidence) the demise the previous March of Stanley Kubrick, whose use of Strauss' Thus Spake Zarathustra in the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey introduced the German master's genius to millions who would no more have visited a concert hall than flown to the moon.

Compact discs' effectiveness not only at widening the available repertoire but at conveying even the most elaborate instances of Strauss' orchestral filigree -- as no earlier recording medium could consistently do -- has itself done Strauss' standing a favour. But few earlier books on Strauss are recent enough or comprehensive enough to make sense amid the CD revolution. Fortunately Michael Kennedy's clear-headed, unfailingly craftsmanlike account is. It also provides some much-needed balance to often peevish and ill-informed accusations that Strauss was a stooge of the Third Reich.

Strauss, whose tongue seldom emerged from his cheek, called himself in 1947 "a first-rate second-rate composer"; but Kennedy's verdict -- that Strauss ranks as high as any composer the 20th century produced -- is not only more generous but probably more accurate. The Strauss expert will relish this book; the newcomer to Strauss can be assured that, save for Kurt Wilhelm's study, no better book on the topic exists.