Richard Strauss Quotes

German composer and orchestra director (1864–1949)

Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864 – September 8, 1949) was a German (Bavarian) composer of classical music and conductor. His music has always been popular: both in the concert hall and on recordings. He is perhaps best known nowadays for his Operas, of which Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos are the most frequently performed. He was also a composer of symphonic works such as Thus Spake Zarathustra and A Hero's Life. He wrote many songs for solo voice with piano or orchestra, including Four Last Songs, Tomorrow! and Rest, my soul!. He was awarded Honorary Doctorates at the Universities of Heidelberg (1903) and Oxford (1913) and awarded the French Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur Croix de Chevalier (1907) and Officier (1913). He conducted throughout his adult life, and made many recordings of his own compositions from 1918 to 1947. His last public concert was on 19 October 1947 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where he conducted the Philharmonia orchestra in a program of his works. His music has inspired many composers, including Béla Bartók, Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten and also Hollywood composers such as Max Steiner and John Williams. His best known music is the opening to Thus Spake Zarathustra, which became one of best known pieces of film music when Stanley Kubrick used it in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Alternative Names: Richard Georg Strauss

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I ask myself why I have actually survived once more and been called back to life.

:3. Conduct 'Salome' and 'Elektra' as if they were by Mendelssohn: fairy music.

It is clear to me that the German nation will achieve new creative energy only by liberating itself from Christianity

Very fine, but why do you put so many wrong notes in? Basically, it is all built on simple triads.

Thirty years ago I was regarded as a rebel, but to-day, as you see, I have lived to find myself a classic.

It is better to conduct with the ear instead of with the arm: the rest follows automatically.

The left hand has nothing to do with conducting. Its proper place is the waistcoat pocket from which it should only emerge to restrain or make some minor gesture for which in any case a scarcely perceptible glance should suffice.

In my opinion, Gustav Mahler's work is one of the most important and interesting products in the history of modern creative arts.

:2. You should not perspire when conducting: only the audience should get warm.

Of all god-gifted dispensers of joy, Johann Strauss is to me the most endearing. I willingly admit to having sometimes conducted the Perpetuum Mobile with far more pleasure than many a four movement symphony.

It is difficult composing endings. Beethoven and Wagner could do it. Only great composers can do it. I can do it too.