German composer who conducted widely and composed incessantly, writing more than 100 songs, tone poems, operas, ballets, chamber music, orchestral and choral works. Success came easily for him; he wrote “Schneider-Polka” for the piano when he was only six years old. One of the most dominant figures of European music, his career spanning 60 years with a prolific output. He was the conductor of numerous orchestras including Meiningen, Berlin, and Vienna.
Strauss’ prodigious talent was recognized early and diligently nurtured. His father, Franz Strauss, was principal horn player in the Bavarian Court Orchestra in Munich and had ready access to the finest musicians of his day. His mom was a member of the Pschorr brewing family and could give her son and husband economic stability to follow their musical bliss. Playing the piano at age four, by age six Strauss was composing. Four years later he composed “Festival March” and “Serenade for Wind Instruments,” both of which were published. While attending the Gymnasium in Munich, he composed Symphony in D minor at age 16 and two years later at University he attended its first public performance. At age 19 he left school to pursue a musical career and enjoyed continuous success; one year later he made his conducting debut without rehearsal and his music was performed by two of the greatest conductors of their day.
By age 35 he had composed the symphonic poems “Don Juan,” “Death and Transfiguration,” “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks,” “Thus Spake Zarathustra” and “Don Quixote,” becoming a leader of avant-garde European composers. During this time he was also one of the most sought after conductors in Europe, left in charge of the Meiningen Court Orchestra after one month as assistant conductor and served as Co-Director of the 1889 and 1891 BayreuthFestivals. His first opera, “Guntram,” was thoroughly Wagnerian and was performed in Weimar in 1894. During rehearsal for “Guntram,” Strauss began a relationship with lead soprano Pauline de Ahna. They married in 1894 and had a son, Franz, in 1897.
By the turn of the twentieth century, Strauss shifted his main interest as a composer from symphonic music to opera, and over the next 40 years created classic works including “Salome,” 1905, (using Oscar Wilde’s lurid drama as the libretto), “Elektra,” (1909),”Der Rosenkavalier,” 1911, which brought fortunes for both Strauss and his Austrian librettist, the poet Hugo Hofmannsthal, followed by “Ariadne Auf Naxos” 1912. The ballet “Josephlegende,” 1914 was composed for Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev and performed in Paris and London on the eve of World War I.
At age 50 in 1914, Strauss decided to devote the rest of his life to composition but his next two works, “Alpine Symphony,” 1915, and “Die Frau Ohne Schatten,” 1919, proved disappointing. “I may not be a first rate composer. But I am a first class second rate composer.” Much of his later music carried a distinct Wagnerian theme. He was a founder of the Salzburg Festivals in 1917 with Hofmannsthal and Max Reinhardt and then became co-director of the Vienna Opera.
Strauss’s 1931 opera “Die Schweigsame Frau,” written by librettist Stefan Zwieg, was banned by the Nazis in 1935 because Zwieg was Jewish. Strauss thus became involved in political scandal, was expelled as head of Reichsmusikkammer and had his music banned for a year. Due to the fact that his daughter-in-law and grandsons were of Jewish ancestry, Strauss was forced to negotiate with the Nazis for their protection.
His later compositions were some of his most inspirational, and he continued to work up to a year before his death in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on 9/8/1949.
Link to Wikipedia biography