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Strauss 150: Strauss's Library

Texts and music focusing on Richard Strauss, with readings by Charles Edwards and Pooky Quesnel. Including Goethe, Wilde and Nietzsche, plus Mozart and Strauss.

Strauss 150: Strauss's Library

In this special edition of Words and Music, Charles Edwards and Pooky Quesnel delve into Richard Strauss's library and imagination. Strauss was an avid reader and, like many of his contemporaries, was extremely well versed in the writings of Goethe. He was also fascinated by the literature of Ancient Greece, modelling his operas on works by Sophocles, as in the example of Elektra.

This edition of Words and Music weaves a Goethe strand - texts by Goethe or inspired by Goethe - with a strand on texts that Strauss used in his operatic works. There are also letters from his correspondence with his librettist Hoffmannsthal and modern poems on subjects that inspired Strauss, from the stories of Salome to Ariadne.

Strauss loved Mozart, Wagner and Couperin. The music of these composers features alongside that of Strauss himself.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 8 Jun 2014 17:30
大象传媒 Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Richard Strauss

    Also sprach Zarathustra (opening extract)

    Performer: Tonnhalle Orchestra Zurich, David Zinman (conductor).
    • ARTE NOVA 74321984952.
    • CD3 Tr3.

  • Nietzsche

    Zarathustra聮s Prologue (Also sprach Zarathustra), read by Pooky Quesnel

  • Richard Strauss

    Recollections and Reflections (extract), read by Charles Edwards

  • 00:05

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Contrapunctus I (Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV.1080)

    Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano).
    • DG 477 7345.
    • Tr1.

  • Nietzsche

    An Goethe (To Goethe), read by Pooky Quesnel

  • 00:09

    Richard Strauss

    Jochanaan! Ich bin verliebt in deinen Leib (Salome)

    Performer: Emmy Destinn (soprano), Orchestra conducted by Bruno Seidler-Winkler.
    • NAXOS 8.111014-15.
    • CD2 Tr7.

  • Oscar Wilde

    Salome (extract), read by Charles Edwards and Pooky Quesnel

  • 00:12

    Richard Strauss

    Dance of the Seven Veils (Salome)

    Performer: Berlin Phiilharmonic, Georg Solti (conductor).
    • DECCA 452 603-2.
    • Tr11.

  • Dorothy Parker

    Salome's Dancing-Lesson, read by Charles Edwards

  • 00:21

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    IV Menuetto (Serenade in B-flat major, K.361 聭Gran Partita聮)

    Performer: Winds of the Berlin Philharmonic.
    • ORFEO C188891.
    • Tr4.
  • 00:26

    Richard Strauss

    Allein! Weh, ganz allein (extract from Elektra聮s Monolgue, Elektra)

    Performer: Astrid Varnay (Elektra), Orchester der Deutschen Oper am Rhein, Arnold Quennet (conductor).
    • ORFEO C 661 041 B.
    • Tr1.

  • Sophocles

    Electra (scene 2), read by Pooky Quesnel

  • 00:31

    Richard Strauss

    Lully Minuet (Der Buerger als Edelmann-Suite, Op.60)

    Performer: Joseph Wolfsthal (violin), Berlin State Opera Orchestra, Richard Strauss (conductor).
    • GEMM CD 9366.
    • Tr7.

  • Francis Howard Williams

    Electra (scene 2), read by Charles Edwards

  • 00:34

    Louis Couperin

    Prelude (Suite in C minor)

    Performer: Christophe Rousset (harpsichord).
    • AP006.
    • CD2 Tr1.

  • Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

    Liaisons dangereuses (Volume 4 Part 1), Letter CXXV (extract), read by Charles Edwards

  • 00:36

    Richard Strauss

    Waltz Movements (Suite from Der Rosenkavalier)

    Performer: The Augmented Tivoli Orchestra, Richard Strauss (conductor).
    • KOCH 3-7132-2 H1.
    • Tr2.
  • 00:40

    Wagner trans. Liszt

    O du mein holder Abendstern (Romance from Tannhauser)

    Performer: Louis Lortie (piano).
    • CHANDOS CHAN 10793.
    • Tr3.

  • Richard Strauss

    Letter to Hoffmannsthal, Garmsich 1. 6. 1925 (extract), read by Charles Edwards

  • Heine, trans. Charles Godfrey Leland

    To a Quondam Follower of Goethe, read by Pooky Quesnel

  • 00:44

    Richard Strauss

    Gefunden, Op.56 No.1 (Goethe)

    Performer: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore (piano).
    • EMI CMS 763995 2.
    • CD5 Tr1.
  • 00:46

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    Adagio quasi un poco andante (String Quartet in C sharp minor, Op.131 No.6)

    Performer: Medici String Quartet.
    • NIMBUS NI 1785.
    • CD7 Tr10.

  • Sylvia Plath

    To Ariadne (deserted by Theseus), read by Charles Edwards and Pooky Quesnel

  • 00:48

    Richard Strauss

    Es gibt ein Reich (Ariadne auf Naxos, Act 1)

    Performer: Deborah Voigt (soprano), Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Richard Armstrong (conductor).
    • EMI 557681-2.
    • Tr7.
  • 00:53

    Richard Strauss

    Andante for horn and piano, Op.Posth.

    Performer: Barry Tuckwell (horn), Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano).
    • DECCA 430 370-2.
    • Tr4.

  • Hofmannsthal

    Letter to Strauss, Rodaun, 20.3.(1911), read by Charles Edwards

  • 00:58

    Richard Strauss

    Aus unsern Taten steigt ein Gericht! (Die Frau ohne Schatten, Act 3)

    Performer: Cheryl Studer (The Empress), Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch (conductor).
    • EMI CDC 749075/77 2.
    • CD3 Tr5.

  • Stefan Zweig

    The World from Yesterday (extract), read by Charles Edwards

  • 01:02

    Richard Strauss

    Potpourri (Die schweigsame Frau)

    Performer: Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, Joseph Keilberth (conductor).
    • TELDEC 843446.
    • Tr8.
  • 01:06

    Richard Strauss

    Cacilie, Op.27 No.2 (Heinrich Hart)

    Performer: Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Helmut Deutsch (piano).
    • HMC 901879.
    • Tr8.

  • James Wright

    Three stanzas from Goethe, read by Pooky Quesnel

  • 01:09

    Richard Strauss

    Metamorphosen 聳 study for 23 solo strings (extract)

    Performer: Vienna Philharmonic, Andre Previn (conductor).
    • PHILIPS 4201602.
    • Tr1.

  • Goethe

    The Metamorphosis of Plants (poem, opening extract), read by Pooky Quesnel

  • Goethe

    The Metamorphosis of Plants聳 - Introduction (study, opening), read by Charles Edwards

Producer's note

Strauss was a highly-cultivated reader and like many of his contemporaries, was extremely well versed in Austro-German culture and its literary canon from Goethe to Nietzsche.听 He spent his life reading and re-reading particularly the poetic and scientific works of Goethe. 听The only work by Goethe that he disliked was Farbenlehre, the treatise on colours. 听His many songs set the poems of much-loved German poets like Schiller, R眉ckert, Uhland, Eichendorff, Hesse, Morgenstern and Herder alongside Goethe, and also poets who have since faded into obscurity.

听

Goethe weaves through this edition of Words and Music, from Strauss鈥檚 own comments on the great poet in his Recollections and Reflections, to short extracts from Goethe鈥檚 The Metamorphosis of Plants, which inspired Metamorphosen, Strauss鈥檚 bleak and grief-filled elegy for Dresden鈥檚 Semper Opera House that lay in ruins at the end of the Second World War. 听听Along the way, Nietzsche, Heine and James Wright pay homage to Goethe, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings one of Strauss鈥檚 Goethe settings, Gefunden, Op.56 No.1 (I walked in the woods just as I pleased).

听

Strauss also enjoyed his creative partnerships with two great contemporaneous literary figures 鈥� Hugo von Hoffmansthal and then Stefan Zweig.听 There are a couple of letters between Strauss and Hoffmannsthal in this programme and also an extract from Stefan Zweig鈥檚 The World of Yesterday that recounts his delight at being approached by Strauss to become his librettist after the death of Hoffmannsthal, a position that protected his work to some extent from the Third Reich campaign to burn books that were seen to undermine their authority.听

听

Strauss was also fascinated by Ancient Greece and, in his last written note, dated July 1949, described himself as a 鈥楪reek German鈥�.听 He had travelled to Greece in 1892 and again in 1926, and drew upon ancient Greek literature by Sophocles, Euripides and Stesichorus for the operas Elektra and Die 盲gyptische Helena.听 His late operas, Daphne and Danae were also created out of Strauss鈥檚 classical spirit.听 Strauss believed that Latin and Greek should be part of an educated European鈥檚 education and, moreover, should be studied in the original.听

听

Baroque France was another cultural strand in Strauss鈥檚 library.听 He adored the music of Couperin and had read the courtly works of Moliere, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos and Jean Babtiste Louvet de Couvray whose tales of chivalry were loosely woven into 鈥楻osenkavalier鈥�.听 Christophe Rousset plays from Couperin鈥檚 Suite in C minor as Charles Edwards reads a tale of seduction from Les Liaisons dangereuses, followed by Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier conducted by Strauss himself.

听

In this edition of Words and Music, there are also seminal moments from Strauss鈥檚 best-known operas coupled with the texts that inspired their libretti.听 Salome attempts to kiss Iokanaan鈥檚 mouth in Oscar Wilde鈥檚 play, which is followed by Dorothy Parker鈥檚 poem Salome鈥檚 Dancing-Lesson read over Solti鈥檚 recording of The Dance of the Seven Veils.听 Sir Georg Solti met Strauss during his time in Munich and conducted a performance of Rosenkavalier there to celebrate the composer鈥檚 85th birthday.听听 Elektra鈥檚 Monologue sung by Astrid Varnay, the most sought-after Elektra for over 20 years, is paired with Electra鈥檚 monologue from the beginning of Sophocles play.

听

Strauss loved the music of Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner, all of whom are represented in this programme.听 I have chosen chamber works for all three composers to tie in with the intimate setting of Strauss鈥檚 library.听 In the same way that Goethe is the great original of Austro-German literature, Bach may be seen as the figurehead of Austro-German music.听 The first mention of Goethe in the programme is accompanied by Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing from Bach鈥檚 Die Kunst der Fuge.听 I have also included Strauss鈥檚 Andante for horn and piano, which he composed in 1888 for the silver wedding of his parents.听 His father was an eminent horn player and a formative musical influence on the young Strauss (although Strauss did later learn to love Wagner against his father鈥檚 will).

听

By delving into the books and scores that Strauss would have kept in his library, this programme hopes to provide a glimpse into Strauss鈥檚 imagination.

听

Elizabeth Arno (producer)

Broadcast

  • Sun 8 Jun 2014 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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