Richard Strauss citations

Richard Strauss est un compositeur et chef d'orchestre allemand né à Munich le 11 juin 1864 et mort à Garmisch-Partenkirchen le 8 septembre 1949.

Richard Strauss est surtout un spécialiste et connaisseur hors pair de l'orchestre ; ses quelques œuvres pour formation de chambre sont peu jouées, à part les mélodies pour piano et chant, poèmes symphoniques et opéras formant le cœur de son œuvre. Si son nom est connu du grand public, c'est avant tout grâce aux trois opéras Salomé, Elektra et Le Chevalier à la rose, et aussi grâce aux poèmes symphoniques Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra, Mort et Transfiguration, Till l'Espiègle ou Don Juan. Le patronyme Strauss, qui signifie « bouquet », est extrêmement commun dans les pays germaniques, et il n'existe aucun lien de parenté entre le Bavarois Richard Strauss et les deux Johann Strauss , originaires de Vienne et surnommés les rois de la valse. Les quelques valses composées par Richard Strauss ne sont présentes dans ses œuvres qu'à titre de clin d'œil à la tradition viennoise, en référence à une époque antérieure ou comme élément connotant l'érotisme et la sensualité. Wikipedia  

✵ 11. juin 1864 – 8. septembre 1949
Richard Strauss photo
Richard Strauss: 31   citations 0   J'aime

Richard Strauss: Citations en anglais

“Declarations about war and politics are not fitting for an artist, who must give his attention to his creations and his works.”

Quotation made in an article published in 1914. Strauss had refused to sign the Manifesto of German artists and intellectuals supporting the German role in the war. Other signatories included Strauss' friends and colleagues, such as Max Reinhardt, Richard Dehmel, Max Liebermann, Engelbert Humperdink and Felix Wiengartner. The original article quoting Strauss was by Richard Specht, and is quoted by Romain Rolland in his diary entry, found on page 160 of Richard Strauss and Romain Rolland, edited by Rollo Myers, Calder and boyars, London, 1989.
Other sources

“When you think you have reached the limits of prestissimo, go twice as fast.”

1948 Today, I should like to ammend this as follows: Go twice as slowly - addressed to conductors of Mozart
Recollections and Reflections

“Why don't people see what is new in my work, how in them, as is found only in Beethoven, the human being visibly plays a part in the work.”

19th June 1949, in Willi Schuh, Strauss the early years, 1982, Cambridge University Press, page xiii.
Other sources

“Man (in B major) asks: When? When? Nature, (in C Major) answers from the depths Never, never, never will the weather improve.”

Whilst composing Also Sprach Zarthustra, Strauss made this joke about the Bavaria weather to his friend, the conductor Max von Schillings. Quoted in Kurt Wilhelm, Richard Strauss - an intimate portrait, page 73.
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“I am not one to compose long melodies as did Mozart. I can’t get beyond short themes. But what I can do, is utilize such a theme, paraphrase it and extract everything that is in it, and I don’t think there’s anybody today who can match me in that.”

Quotes from Stefan Zweigs's posthumous memoire, The World of Yesterday. Zweig worked with Strauss closely on the opera The Silent Woman in the period 1931-1934 and got to know him well.
Other sources

“My wife, my child, my music, Nature and the sun; they are my happiness.”

written on the sketches for his Domestic Symphony. Charles Youmans, Mahler and Strauss in Dialogue, Indiana University press (2016), found on page 60.
Other sources

“I hope, most revered Maestro, that these metronome markings, in my opinion wholly unneeded by you, are specific enough. Where they do not fit with your conception, I implore you urgently just to ignore them.”

Letter to Hans Von Bulow, 15th January 1890, in Schuh and Trenner, Hans von Bulow and Richard Strauss: Correspondence, in English Boosey and Hawkes 1955. Von Bulow had asked for metronome markings from Strauss for Don Juan. [Italics Strauss]
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“When during my stay in Egypt I became familiar with the works of Nietzsche, whose polemic against christianity was particularly to my liking, the antipathy which I had always felt against a religion which relieves the faithful of responsibility for their actions (by means of confession) was confirmed and strengthened.”

Recollections of my youth and years of apprenticeship, page 140. In November 1892, Strauss had set off for an eight month journey to Greece and Egypt for convalesence from a severe lung ailment.
Recollections and Reflections

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

On conducting classical masterpieces. (p44-56).
Recollections and Reflections

“More like a sacrilege du printemps.”

The first quote was made to Stravinsky after he had shown Strauss some of his works in Paris, 1914. The second quote an overheard joke of Strauss later reported to Stravinsky. Found in Kurt Wilhelm, Richard Strauss - an intimate portrait. Thames and Hudson, London, 1898. (Translated from original 1984 German edition by Mary Whittard), page 142.
Other sources

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

In late fall of 1948, Willi Schuh visited Strauss after an operation at a Clinic in Lausanne. This was a comment made by Strauss. From It will be alright on the night: Richard Streauss through quotes and anecdotes. Ed Alexander Witeschnick, Neff Press, Vienna (1983), page 187.
Other sources

“Strauss told me about his new ballet, which he wrote in the summer. It’s called ‘Schlagobers’ (whipped cream) and he said, jokingly: ‘Oh yes, when one gets old one has ideas like that.”

In America with Richard Strauss. Elisabeth Schumann’s Travel Diary (14th October to 31st December 1921). Elisabeth Schumann was a soprano who worked with Strauss in the 1920s and 1930s. He dedicated his Brentano Lieder to her.
Other sources

“Long live the politico-satrical-parodistic opera!”

Letter to Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, 5 June 1916. They had been discussing the new first act of Ariadne auf Naxos. A Working Friendhip: The correspondence between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hoffmanstahl, Vienna House, New York (1961). Page 251.
Other sources

“Please start from the Bruch violin concerto again!”

Whilst rehearsing the Alpine Symphony, referring to the theme in which he quotes and extends the theme from the slow movement of the violin concerto by Max Bruch. The quote is reported in Kurt Wilhelm, Richard Strauss - an intimate portrait. Thames and Hudson, London, 1989, page 40. The theme's major appearence is in C major just after rehearsal mark 80 ("At the summit"), played by horns in unison:
Other sources

“As for the Rosenkavalier waltzes…how could I have done those without a thought of the laughing genius of Vienna?”

On Johann Strauss, page 77. Originally written in 1925.
Recollections and Reflections

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

Gustav Mahler, page 78. Originally written for a volume dedicated to Mahler edited by Paul Stephan, Munich 1910.
Recollections and Reflections

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

Diary entry, shortly after the death of Gustav Mahler (1911). Quoted in Oxford University Press, Grove music online: Strauss, Richard, §7: Instrumental works (written by Bryan Gilliam and Charles Youmans).
Other sources

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