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Rating: 
Summary: Not Strauss the man, but his music as seen by a conductor.
Review: As a horn player who became a conductor, Norman Del Mar wrote a three-volume study of Richard Strauss that appears to be, essentially, the notes of a conductor preparing to confront Strauss's music on the podium. It is thus excellent in understanding musical structure, the roles of motifs, the orchestration, and the literary background of the works. At the same time, Del Mar did not in the end achieve a biography of Richard Strauss the man, as the author himself admits. I personally am still looking for a biography that would take seriously Strauss's conducting career, his career as a performer along with his wife, his income and investments, his professional associations, the fates of his wife and son, his card playing, and all the rest of the personal side. Regarding the music itself, while Del Mar of course admires Richard Strauss greatly, he does not shy away from making judgments. When he doesn't especially admire something, he says so, says why, and lets the reader know what others have said about it as well. Del Mar fairly consistently praises Strauss's "classical" or light-handed works. For example, the praise he gives to the music for "Le bourgeois gentilhomme" is perhaps somewhat out of proportion to that work's place in Strauss's opus. This is not to say that Del Mar does not appreciate the romance and even the sexuality that Strauss frequently projected. On the contrary, the author plunges you into the mood of some of these moments, without ever losing perspective. I'm afraid that he does give short shrift to one extremely important moment in Strauss's music -- the Presentation of the Rose at the beginning of Act 2 of "Der Rosenkavalier." Somehow the thunderstruck feeling of first love that Strauss's music communicates at this moment does not penetrate Del Mar. Thus, he faults Strauss (and Hofmannsthal) for not explaining how, in the second half of Act 2, Octavian and Sofie can so easily fall into complicity over dissolving the engagement with Ochs, and for not explaining why Octavian turns away from the Marschallin at the end of Act 3. I wonder whether Del Mar may have gone out for popcorn at the start of Act 2, because when you hear the music of the two young people together at the moment of the Presentation of the Rose, you know that the Marschallin is history. In any case, Del Mar's book is a tremendous achievement of musicianship, scholarship, and understanding. It is indispensable for studying the work of one of the greatest artists of our culture. Be warned that non-musicians may find these three volumes tough reading!
Rating: 
Summary: A complete guide for listening to the music of R. Strauss
Review: Del Mar was a man who accepted a very challenging task: to show the world the importance and genius of Richard Strauss at a time when it was the fashion to dismiss the relative importance of this exceptional composer. Del Mar's approach to this challenge helped create the great three volume work we have here, but also created a text that impairs the readers to truly put Strauss' accomplishments into perspective. Del Mar was clearly a Strauss fan, who felt Strauss was under appreciated. To best hide his impartiality, much like a father coaching a son in little-league baseball, he gave Strauss no special treatment, and at times even goes overboard to try and prove to the readers that he is a fair judge. This approach has allowed this work to become a valued base line for studying Strauss the Composer, but also furthered the lack of credit given to Strauss in the Academic world. One gets the feeling that Strauss never entered the ranks of the other master composers such as Wagner, Beethoven, and Mahler. Most importantly these books serve as an invaluable resource for any serious Strauss listening - all tone poems and major works are covered in great detail, with plenty of musical examples and figures. Del Mar did a very, very thorough job. The reading is fun, passionate and never dry.
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