Richard Strauss

Rating:
Summary: A balanced biography of Strauss
Review: In a fairly straightforward biography emphasizing the composition and production of Strauss's music, this book also looks unblinkingly at his anti-Semitism (which diminished after the birth of his two adored half-Jewish grandsons) and at his confused and confusing involvement with Hitler's Third Reich. The music is lovingly and skilfully described. This is the portrait of a man who is utterly devoted to his art and his family, and who is all too human when confronted with the political pressures bearing on them.

Rating:
Summary: snore and a half
Review: This book is a snore and a half because it does not depict the composers life in a realistic view. The auther must have read an encyclopedia exert and then thought he knew enough about him to write a book, because the book can be summerized into 1 scentance and that scentance would be Richard Struass was a great composer. All in all I am very disappointed in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Balanced & well worth reading
Review: This is a fascinating, impressively researched, balanced biography of Richard Strauss. The author clearly appreciates Strauss's music, but refuses to either gloss over or demonize Strauss's personal flaws, anti-Semitism, or involvement with the Nazis. (Strauss was not a party member; his involvement with the Nazis was in part because of career pragmatism, in part because of his interest in composers' rights, and, well, in part because he agreed with their cultural agenda.) He was a great composer and an outstanding conductor, but hardly a hero.

Until reading this, my knowledge of Strauss was limited mostly to various album notes and a few encyclopedia articles. I'd heard that some biographies trash him, and some are basically a whitewash. I'm glad I chose this one. It gives a comprehensive view of his influences and his life. Other composers had spectacular flaws; Strauss's reputation has probably suffered disproportionately.

Be warned: this is a thesis. You will experience the horror of endnotes. I don't know why Northeastern University Press didn't turn these into footnotes; perhaps some editor there has a fetish for turning back and forth between pages. Given that some chapters have over 50 endnotes, you're forced to either ignore them, read them all at once out of context, or place a post-it on the appropriate endnotes page and flip back and forth. Pointlessly annoying.

Although this is not always a fast read, especially because of the endnotes, toward the end it does become a page-turner. The epilogue, with the author's conclusions, is impressive.

If you love Strauss's music and want to know more, this is worth buying.

M. Brian Kelly