Richard Strauss' complex scores, especially his operas and tone poems, are about as far removed from simple, homespun folk music as it is possible to be. Elegant, grandiose and sophisticated, his music seems ideally suited to heroic tales about larger-than-life characters, such as those found in his tone poems Don Juan, Don Quixote and Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Strauss also used this grandiose musical language to describe his own family relationships, particularly his often stormy relationship with his wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna. These works reveal a different Strauss, if you will--a lesser-known side of this great composer.
This is the Strauss that Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra will explore in their season-opening concert, Marriage Actually. Through the Symphonia Domestica, Four Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo, and the Parergon on Symphonia Domestica, Botstein and the ASO will present an unusual musical portrait of Strauss' domestic life at Carnegie Hall on October 15.
Few marriages in classical music have been more mused upon than that of Richard and Pauline Strauss.
"He was married, and presumably very happily, to what everybody regarded to be a real shrew and difficult obnoxious woman, Pauline, whom he had met when she was a very fine and aspiring and successful soprano," Maestro Botstein said in an interview with WQXR's Elliott Forrest. "He was madly in love with her, by all accounts, all his life."
Despite Pauline Strauss' ultimate disappointment with her musical career, and her famously sharp-tongued barbs that were frequently directed at Strauss himself, the marriage not only endured but was a source of strength for them both.
Symphonia Domestica depicts 24 hours of life at home with the Strauss family, including portraits of Pauline, their son, and the composer himself. The Four Symphonic Interludes bring together the most celebrated passages from Intermezzo, an opera that Strauss based on the real-life shock of Pauline wrongly accusing him of adultery.
And the left-handed piano concerto, Parergon on Symphonia Domestica, a virtually unknown work, plays on a theme from the Symphonia Domestica that represents the illness of the Strauss' son. Parergon will feature English pianist Mark Bebbington in his New York debut.
Maestro Botstein will share the stories behind the music in a lively 30-minute Conductor's Notes Q&A at 7:00 p.m. in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. The talk is free for all ticket holders.
The ASO's focus on Strauss' domestic life leads to an interesting question. Was Strauss' heroic and grandiose musical language really suited to describing scenes from everyday life?
As Botstein said to Elliott Forrest, "Symphonia Domestica is an exercise in extreme realism. It infuriated Charles Ives...[because]it was too realistic and too vulgar. [Strauss] has a baby crying, he has orgasms, he has quarrels...within the music."
Of course, there are those who believe that everything Strauss touched turned to musical gold, from tone poems about family life all the way up to his operas about biblical or mythological characters.
You can decide for yourself at Carnegie Hall on October 15. More information about the ASO's program is available at americansymphony.org.
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