Editing Richard Strauss (section)

==Life==
===Early life and career (1864–1886)===
[[File:Franz Strauss.jpg|thumb|upright|Franz Strauss, father of Richard Strauss]]
Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in [[Munich]], the son of Josephine (née Pschorr) and [[Franz Strauss]], who was the principal [[Horn (instrument)|horn]] player at the Court Opera in Munich and a professor at the [[Königliche Musikschule]].<ref name="g1"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Richard_Strauss.aspx|title=Richard Strauss facts, information, pictures|website=encyclopedia.com|access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref> His mother was the daughter of Georg Pschorr, a financially prosperous [[Hacker-Pschorr Brewery|brewer from Munich]].<ref name="g1">{{harvnb|Gilliam|Youmans|2001}}</ref> 

A [[child prodigy]] in composition, Strauss began his musical studies at the age of four, studying piano with August Tombo who was the harpist in the Munich Court Orchestra.<ref name="g1"/> Soon after, he began attending the rehearsals of the orchestra, and began getting lessons in music theory and orchestration from the ensemble's assistant conductor. He wrote his first composition at the age of six, and continued to write music almost until his death. In 1872, he started receiving violin instruction from [[Benno Walter]], the director of the Munich Court Orchestra and his father's cousin, and at 11 began five years of compositional study with Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer.<ref name="g1"/> In 1882 he graduated from the Ludwigsgymnasium and afterwards attended only one year at the [[University of Munich]] in 1882–1883.<ref name="g1"/>

In addition to his formal teachers, Strauss was profoundly influenced musically by his father who made instrumental music-making central to the Strauss home. The Strauss family was frequently joined in their home for music making, meals, and other activities by the orphaned composer and music theorist [[Ludwig Thuille]] who was viewed as an adopted member of the family.<ref name="g1"/> Strauss's father taught his son the music of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert.<ref name="g1"/> His father further assisted his son with his musical composition during the 1870s and into the early 1880s, providing advice, comments, and criticisms.<ref name="g1"/> His father also provided support by showcasing his son's compositions in performance with the Wilde Gung'l, an amateur orchestra he conducted from 1875 to 1896. Many of his early symphonic compositions were written for this ensemble.<ref name="g1"/> His compositions at this time were indebted to the style of [[Robert Schumann]] and [[Felix Mendelssohn]], true to his father's teachings. His father undoubtedly had a crucial influence on his son's developing taste, not least in Strauss's abiding love for the horn. His [[Horn Concerto No. 1 (Strauss)|Horn Concerto No. 1]] is representative of this period and is a staple of the modern horn repertoire.<ref name="g1"/>

In 1874, Strauss heard his first [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] operas, ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' and ''[[Tannhäuser (opera)|Tannhäuser]]''.<ref name="B"/> In 1878 he attended performances of ''[[Die Walküre]]'' and ''[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]'' in Munich, and in 1879 he attended performances of the entire ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen|Ring Cycle]]'', ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg]]'', and ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]''.<ref name="g1"/> The influence of Wagner's music on Strauss's style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, and it was not until the age of 16 that Strauss was able to obtain a score of ''Tristan und Isolde''.<ref name="B"/> In 1882 he went to the [[Bayreuth Festival]] to hear his father perform in the world premiere of Wagner's ''[[Parsifal]]''; after which surviving letters to his father and to Thuille detail his seemingly negative impression of Wagner and his music.<ref name="g1"/> In later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagner's progressive works.<ref name="B">{{harvnb|Boyden|1999|p={{Page needed|date=December 2013}}}}</ref>

[[File:Richard Strauss 20OCT1886.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Strauss aged 22]]
In early 1882, in Vienna, Strauss gave the first performance of his [[Violin Concerto (Strauss)|Violin Concerto in D minor]], playing a piano reduction of the orchestral part himself, with his teacher Benno Walter as soloist. The same year he entered [[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]], where he studied philosophy and art history, but not music. He left a year later to go to Berlin, where he studied briefly before securing a post with the [[Meiningen Court Orchestra]] as assistant conductor to [[Hans von Bülow]], who had been enormously impressed by the young composer's ''Serenade (Op. 7)'' for wind instruments, composed when he was only 16 years of age. Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the young man, and Strauss considered him as his greatest conducting mentor, often crediting him as teaching him "the art of interpretation".<ref name="g1"/> Notably, under Bülow's baton he made his first major appearance as a concert pianist, performing Mozart's [[Piano Concerto No. 24 (Mozart)|Piano Concerto No. 24]], for which he composed his own [[cadenza]]s.<ref name="g1"/>

In December 1885, Bülow unexpectedly resigned from his post, and Strauss was left to lead the Meiningen Court Orchestra as interim principal conductor for the remainder of the artistic season through April 1886.<ref name="g1"/> He notably helped prepare the orchestra for the world premiere performance of [[Johannes Brahms]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 4]], which Brahms himself conducted. He also conducted his [[Symphony No. 2 (Strauss)|Symphony No. 2]] for Brahms, who advised Strauss: "Your symphony contains too much playing about with themes. This piling up of many themes based on a triad, which differ from one another only in rhythm, has no value."<ref name="g1"/> Brahms' music, like Wagner's, also left a tremendous impression upon Strauss, and he often referred to this time of his life as his 'Brahmsschwärmerei' ('Brahms adoration') during which several his compositions clearly show Brahms' influence, including the [[Piano Quartet (Strauss)|Piano Quartet in C minor]], Op. 13 (1883–84), ''[[Wandrers Sturmlied]]'' (1884) and ''[[Burleske]]'' (1885–86)."<ref name="g1" />

===Success in conducting and tone poems (1885–1898)===

In 1885 Strauss met the composer [[Alexander Ritter]] who was a violinist in the Meiningen orchestra and the husband of one of [[Richard Wagner]]'s nieces. An avid champion of the ideals of Wagner and [[Franz Liszt]], Ritter had a tremendous impact on the trajectory of Strauss's work as a composer from 1885 onward. Ritter convinced Strauss to abandon his more conservative style of composing and embrace the "music of the future" by modeling his compositional style on Wagner and Liszt.<ref name="g1"/> He further influenced Strauss by engaging him in studies and conversations on the writings of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], Wagner, and Friedrich von Hausegger. All of this together gave a new aesthetic anchor to Strauss which first became evident in his embrace of the [[tone poem]] genre.<ref name="g1"/>

After leaving his post in Meiningen in 1886, Strauss spent several weeks traveling throughout Italy before assuming a new post as third conductor at the [[Bavarian State Opera]] (then known as the Munich Hofoper). While traveling he wrote down descriptions of the various sites he was seeing along with tonal impressions that went with those descriptions. These he communicated in a letter to his mother, and they ultimately were used as the beginning of his first tone poem, ''[[Aus Italien]]'' (1886).<ref name="g1" /> Shortly after Strauss assumed his opera conducting duties in Munich, Ritter himself moved to the city in September 1886. For the next three years the two men would meet regularly, often joined by Thuille and [[Anton Seidl]], to discuss music, particularly Wagner and Liszt, and discuss poetry, literature, and philosophy.<ref name="g1" />

Strauss's tenure at the Bavarian State Opera was not a happy one. With the death of [[Ludwig II of Bavaria]] in June 1886, the opera house was not as well financially supported by his successor [[Otto, King of Bavaria|Otto of Bavaria]] which meant that much of the more ambitious and expensive repertoire that he wanted to stage, such as Wagner's operas, were unfeasible. The opera assignments he was given, works by Boieldieu, Auber and Donizetti, bored him, and to make matters worse Hermann Levi, the senior conductor at the house, was often ill and Strauss was required to step in at the last minute to conduct performance for operas which he had never rehearsed. This caused problems for him, the singers, and the orchestra. During this time, Strauss did find much more enjoyable conducting work outside Munich in Berlin, Dresden, and Leipzig. In the latter city he met and befriended the composer [[Gustav Mahler]] in the autumn of 1887. Also happily, Strauss met his future wife, soprano [[Pauline de Ahna]], in 1887. De Ahna was then a voice student at the Munich Musikschule (now the [[University of Music and Performing Arts Munich]]), but soon switched to private lessons with Strauss who became her principal teacher.<ref name="g1"/>
[[File:Pauline Strauss de Ahna.jpg|thumb|Pauline de Ahna Strauss, c. 1900]]
In May 1889 Strauss left his post with the Bavarian State Opera after being appointed [[Kapellmeister]] to [[Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach]] in Weimar, beginning in the autumn of 1889. During the summer of 1889 he served as the assistant conductor of the [[Bayreuth Festival]] during which time he befriended [[Cosima Wagner]] who became a longterm close friend.<ref name="g1"/> Pauline De Ahna went with Strauss to Weimar and he later married her on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, but to all appearances the marriage was essentially happy, and she was a great source of inspiration to him. Throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final ''[[Four Last Songs]]'' of 1948, he preferred the [[soprano|soprano voice]] to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. In Weimar she created the role of Freihild in Strauss's first opera, ''[[Guntram (opera)|Guntram]]'', in 1894. The opera was received with mixed reviews in Weimar, but its later production in Munich was met with scorn and was Strauss's first major failure.<ref name="g1"/>

In spite of the failure of his first opera, Strauss's tenure in Weimar brought about several important successes for his career. His tone poem ''[[Don Juan (Strauss)|Don Juan]]'' premiered in Weimar on 11 November 1889 to tremendous critical response, and the work quickly brought him international fame and success. This was followed by another lauded achievement, the premiere of his tone poem ''[[Death and Transfiguration]]'' in 1890. Both of these works, along with the earlier ''Burleske'', became internationally known and established him as a leading modernist composer.<ref name="g1"/> He also had much success as a conductor in Weimar, particularly with the symphonic poems of Liszt and an uncut production of ''Tristan und Isolde'' in 1892.<ref name="g1"/>
[[File:Strauss Haus Garmisch.JPG|thumb|left|Strauss villa at [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]]]]
In the summer of 1894 Strauss made his conducting debut at the Bayreuth Festival, conducting Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' with Pauline singing Elisabeth. Just prior to their marriage the following September, Strauss left his post in Weimar when he was appointed Kapellmeister, or first conductor, of the Bavarian State Opera where he became responsible for the operas of Wagner. While working in Munich for the next four years he had his largest creative period of tone poem composition, producing ''[[Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks]]'' (1895), ''[[Also sprach Zarathustra]]'' (1896), ''[[Don Quixote (Strauss)|Don Quixote]]'' (1897), and ''[[Ein Heldenleben]]'' (1898).<ref name="g1"/> He also served as principal conductor of the [[Berlin Philharmonic]] in 1894–1895. In 1897, the Strausses' only child, their son Franz, was born.<ref name="RS">{{Cite web|url=http://www.richardstrauss.at/strauss-and-the-family.html|title=Richard Strauss Website}}</ref> In 1906, Strauss purchased a block of land at [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]] and had a villa ({{ill|Strauss-Villa (Garmisch-Partenkirchen)|de|lt=Strauss-Villa}}) built there with the down payments from the publisher [[Adolph Fürstner]]<ref>

[http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/digital/exhibitions/exhibits/show/the-bible-through-music/item/1562 'Salome 2']. [[Salome (opera)]]. [[Adolph Fürstner]]. 'The Bible Through Music'. [[Indiana University]]. (USA).</ref> for his opera ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]'',<ref>Jefferson, Alan. (1973). ''The Life of Richard Strauss''. p. 107. {{ISBN|0-7153-6199-6}}. ''[[David & Charles]]''. (Devon, UK)</ref><ref>Hopkins, Kate. (16 January 2018). [http://www.roh.org.uk/news/opera-essentials-strausss-salome 'Opera Essentials: Strauss's Salome']. [[Royal Opera House]]. (United Kingdom).</ref> residing there until his death.<ref name="g1"/>

===Fame and success with operas (1898–1933)===
[[File:Strauss 1898 by Fritz Erler.jpg|thumb|Strauss, portrait by [[Fritz Erler]], 1898]]
Strauss left the Bavarian State Opera in 1898 when he became principal conductor of the [[Staatskapelle Berlin]] at the [[Berlin State Opera]] in the fall of 1898; a position he remained in for 15 years. By this time in his career, he was in constant demand as a guest conductor internationally and enjoyed celebrity status as a conductor; particularly in the works of [[Wagner]], [[Mozart]], and [[Liszt]] in addition to his own compositions.<ref name="g1"/> He became president of the [[Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein]] in 1901, and that same year became leader of the [[Berliner Tonkünstlerverein]].<ref name="g1"/> He also served as editor of the book series ''Die Musik''. He used all of these posts to champion contemporary German composers like [[Mahler]]. His own compositions were becoming increasingly popular, and the first major orchestra to perform an entire concert of only his music was the [[Vienna Philharmonic]] in 1901.<ref name="g1"/> In 1903 Strauss Festivals dedicated to his music were established in London and Heidelberg. At the latter festival his cantata ''[[Taillefer (Strauss)|Taillefer]]'' was given its world premiere.<ref name="g1"/>

In 1904 Strauss embarked on his first North American tour, with stops in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York City, and Pittsburgh. At [[Carnegie Hall]] he conducted the world premiere of his ''[[Symphonia Domestica]]'' on 21 March 1904 with the [[Wetzler Symphony Orchestra]].<ref name="Wetzler">{{cite news|title=Herman Wetzler, Composer, 72, Dies|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=30 May 1943|page=26}}</ref> He also conducted several other works in collaboration with composer [[Hermann Hans Wetzler]] and his orchestra that year at Carnegie Hall, and also performed a concert of lieder with his wife.<ref name="Wetzler"/> During this trip he was working intensively on composing his third opera, ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]'', based on [[Oscar Wilde]]'s 1891 play ''[[Salome (play)|Salome]]''. The work, which premiered in Dresden in 1905, became Strauss's greatest triumph in his career up to that point, and opera houses all over the world quickly began programing the opera.<ref name="g1"/>
[[File:Richard-strauss-and-pauline-and-franz-1910.jpg|thumb|left|Strauss with his wife and son, 1910]]
After ''Salome'', Strauss had a string of critically successful operas which he created with the librettist and poet [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal]]. These operas included ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'' (1909), ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' (1911), ''[[Ariadne auf Naxos]]'' (1912, rev. 1916), ''[[Die Frau ohne Schatten]]'' (1919), ''[[Die ägyptische Helena]]'' (1928), and ''[[Arabella]]'' (1933).<ref name="g1"/> While all of these works remain part of the opera repertoire, his opera ''Der Rosenkavalier'' is generally considered his finest achievement.<ref name="g1"/> During this time he continued to work internationally as a celebrity conductor, and from 1919 to 1924 he was principal conductor of the [[Vienna State Opera]].<ref name="g1"/> In 1920 he co-founded the [[Salzburg Festival]] with [[Max Reinhardt]] and the set designer Alfred Rolle. In 1924 Strauss's opera ''[[Intermezzo (opera)|Intermezzo]]'' premiered at the [[Semperoper|Dresden Semperoper]] with both the music and libretto by Strauss. For this opera, Strauss wanted to move away from post-Wagnerian metaphysics which had been the philosophical framework of Hofmannsthal's libretti, and instead embrace a modern domestic comedy to Hofmannsthal's chagrin.<ref name="g1"/> The work proved to be a success.<ref name="g1"/>

At the outbreak of [[World War I]] Strauss was invited to sign the [[Manifesto of the Ninety-Three|Manifesto of German artists and intellectuals]] supporting the German role in the conflict. Several colleagues, including [[Max Reinhardt]], signed, but Strauss refused, and his response was recorded with approval by the French critic [[Romain Rolland]] in his diary for October 1914: "Declarations about war and politics are not fitting for an artist, who must give his attention to his creations and his works."<ref name=Myers68>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=duEqAAAAIAAJ |author1=Richard Strauss |author2=Romain Rolland |date=1968 |title= Richard Strauss & Romain Rolland: Correspondence |publisher=Calder, London | editor=Rollo Myers}}</ref>

In 1924 Strauss's son Franz married Alice von Grab-Hermannswörth, daughter of a Jewish industrialist, in a Roman Catholic ceremony.<ref name="RS"/> Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian.<ref name="RS"/>
[[File:Signed drawing of Richard Strauss by Manuel Rosenberg 1927.jpg|thumb|Signed drawing by [[Manuel Rosenberg]] 1927]]

===Nazi Germany (1933–1945)===

====''Reichsmusikkammer''====
In March 1933, when Strauss was 68, [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power|Adolph Hitler rose to power]]. Strauss never joined the [[Nazi Party]], and studiously avoided [[Nazi salute|Nazi forms of greeting]]. For reasons of expediency, however, he was initially drawn into cooperating with the early Nazi regime in the hope that Hitler—an ardent Wagnerian and music lover who had admired Strauss's work since viewing ''Salome'' in 1907—would promote German art and culture. Strauss's need to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and Jewish grandchildren also motivated his behavior,<ref name="g1" /> in addition to his determination to preserve and conduct the music of banned composers such as [[Gustav Mahler]] and [[Claude Debussy]].

In 1933, Strauss wrote in his private notebook:
<blockquote>I consider the [[Julius Streicher|Streicher]]–Goebbels Jew-baiting as a disgrace to German honour, as evidence of incompetence—the basest weapon of untalented, lazy mediocrity against a higher intelligence and greater talent.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=274}}</blockquote>

Meanwhile, far from being an admirer of Strauss's work, [[Joseph Goebbels]] maintained expedient cordiality with Strauss only for a period. Goebbels wrote in his diary:
<blockquote>Unfortunately we still need him, but one day we shall have our own music and then we shall have no further need of this decadent neurotic.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=293}}</blockquote>

[[File:Richard Strauss-TIME-1927.jpg|thumb|upright|Strauss on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]'' in 1927; he was also on the magazine's cover in 1938.]]
Nevertheless, because of Strauss's international eminence, in November 1933 he was appointed to the post of president of the newly founded ''[[Reichsmusikkammer]]'', the Reich Music Chamber. Strauss, who had lived through numerous political regimes and had no interest in politics, decided to accept the position but to remain apolitical, a decision which would eventually become untenable. He wrote to his family, "I made music under [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|the Kaiser]], and under [[Friedrich Ebert|Ebert]]. I'll survive under this one as well."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael Kennedy (music critic) |title=Richard Strauss |date=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=88 |isbn=978-0-19-816481-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zyYIAQAAMAAJ&q=%22I+made+music+under+the+Kaiser,+and+under+Ebert.+I%27ll+survive+under+this+one+as+well.%22}}</ref> He later wrote in his journal:
<blockquote>In November 1933, the minister Goebbels nominated me president of the ''Reichsmusikkammer'' without obtaining my prior agreement. I was not consulted. I accepted this honorary office because I hoped that I would be able to do some good and prevent worse misfortunes, if from now onwards German musical life were going to be, as it was said, "reorganized" by amateurs and ignorant place-seekers.<ref>[[Bill McGlaughlin|McGlaughlin, Bill]].  [https://www.wfmt.com/programs/exploring-music/ "Richard Strauss"], ''[[Exploring Music]]'' (2004) on the [[WFMT]] Radio Network; episode 5 of 5, first aired 9 January 2004. Quoted at 01:35 of episode "Friday, July 14, 2024". {{Retrieved|access-date=16 June 2024}} {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614075617/https://www.wfmt.com/programs/exploring-music/ |date=14 June 2024 |nolink=y}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ashley |first1=Tim |title=Richard Strauss |date=1999 |publisher=[[Phaidon Press]] |isbn=9780714837949 |page=164 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ksIZAQAAIAAJ |quote=Strauss was nominated president of the music section, the Reichsmusikkammer. 'I was not consulted', he later wrote. 'I accepted this honorary office because I hoped that I would be able to do some good and prevent worse misfortunes, if from now onwards German musical life were going to be, as it was said, "reorganized" by amateurs and ignorant place-seekers.'}}</ref></blockquote>

Strauss privately scorned Goebbels and called him "a pipsqueak".{{sfn|Reuth|1993|p=402}} However, in 1933 he dedicated an orchestral song, "''Das Bächlein''" ("The Little Brook"), to Goebbels, to gain his cooperation in extending German music copyright laws from 30 years to 50 years.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|pp=281–282}} Also in 1933, he replaced [[Arturo Toscanini]] as director of the Bayreuth Festival after Toscanini had resigned in protest against the Nazi regime.<ref name="g1"/>

Strauss attempted to ignore Nazi bans on performances of works by Debussy, Mahler, and Mendelssohn. He also continued to work on a comic opera, ''Die schweigsame Frau'', with his Jewish friend and librettist [[Stefan Zweig]]. When the opera was premiered in Dresden in 1935, Strauss insisted that Zweig's name appear on the theatrical billing, much to the ire of the Nazi regime. Hitler and Goebbels avoided attending the opera, and it was halted after three performances and subsequently banned by the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]].{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=285}}

On 17 June 1935, Strauss wrote a letter to Stefan Zweig, in which he stated:
<blockquote>Do you believe I am ever, in any of my actions, guided by the thought that I am 'German'? Do you suppose Mozart was consciously 'Aryan' when he composed? I recognise only two types of people: those who have talent and those who have none.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=297}}</blockquote>

This letter to Zweig was intercepted by the [[Gestapo]] and sent to Hitler. Strauss was subsequently [[Dismissal (employment)|dismissed]] from his post as ''Reichsmusikkammer'' president in 1935. The [[1936 Summer Olympics|1936 Berlin Summer Olympics]] nevertheless used Strauss's ''[[Olympische Hymne]]'', which he had composed in 1934. Strauss's seeming relationship with the Nazis in the 1930s attracted criticism from some noted musicians, including Toscanini, who in 1933 had said, "To Strauss the composer I take off my hat; to Strauss the man I put it back on again", when Strauss had accepted the presidency of the ''Reichsmusikkammer''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kennedy|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Kennedy (music critic)|date=October 1978|title=Review of ''A Confidential Matter: The Letters of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig, 1931–1935''|journal=[[Music & Letters]]|volume=59|number=4|pages=472–475|doi=10.1093/ml/59.4.472}}</ref> Much of Strauss's motivation in his conduct during the Third Reich was, however, to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law Alice and his Jewish grandchildren from persecution. Both of his grandsons were bullied at school, but Strauss used his considerable influence to prevent the boys or their mother being sent to [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]].{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=316}}

====Late operas and family tragedy====
[[File:Strauss 1938.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Strauss at Garmisch in 1938]]
Frustrated that he could no longer work with Zweig as his librettist, Strauss turned to [[Joseph Gregor]], a Viennese theatre historian, at Gregor's request. The first opera they worked on together was ''[[Daphne (opera)|Daphne]]'', but it ultimately became the second of their operas to be premiered. Their first work to be staged was in 1938, when the entire nation was preparing for war, they presented ''[[Friedenstag]]'' (''Peace Day''), a one-act opera set in a besieged fortress during the [[Thirty Years' War]]. The work is essentially a hymn to peace and a thinly veiled criticism of the Third Reich. With its contrasts between freedom and enslavement, war and peace, light and dark, this work has a close affinity with [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s ''[[Fidelio]]''. Productions of the opera ceased shortly after the outbreak of war in 1939. The two men collaborated on two more operas which proved to be Strauss's last: ''[[Die Liebe der Danae]]'' (1940) and ''[[Capriccio (opera)|Capriccio]]'' (1942).<ref name="g1"/>

When his Jewish daughter-in-law Alice was placed under house arrest in [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]] in 1938, Strauss used his connections in Berlin, including opera-house General Intendant [[Heinz Tietjen]], to secure her safety. He drove to the [[Theresienstadt concentration camp]] to argue, albeit unsuccessfully, for the release of Alice's grandmother, Paula Neumann. In the end, Neumann and 25 other relatives were murdered in the camps.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/06/arts/music-richard-strauss-and-hitler-s-reich-jupiter-in-hell.html "Music; Richard Strauss and Hitler's Reich: Jupiter in Hell"] by [[Michael Hans Kater]], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 6 January 2002</ref> While Alice's mother, Marie von Grab, was safe in Lucerne, Switzerland, Strauss also wrote several letters to the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] pleading for the release of her children who were also held in camps; his letters were ignored.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=339}}

In 1942, Strauss moved with his family back to Vienna, where Alice and her children could be protected by [[Baldur von Schirach]], the [[Gauleiter]] of Vienna. However, Strauss was unable to protect his Jewish relatives completely; in early 1944, while Strauss was away, Alice and her son Franz were abducted by the Gestapo and imprisoned for two nights. Strauss's personal intervention at this point saved them, and he was able to take them back to Garmisch, where the two remained under house arrest until the end of the war.<ref name="g1"/>

====''Metamorphosen'' and end of the war====
Strauss completed the composition of ''[[Metamorphosen]]'', a work for 23 solo strings, in 1945. The title and inspiration for the work comes from a profoundly self-examining poem by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]], which Strauss had considered setting as a choral work.{{sfn|Ross|2009|p=338}} Generally regarded as one of the masterpieces of the string repertoire, ''Metamorphosen'' contains Strauss's most sustained outpouring of tragic emotion. Conceived and written during the blackest days of World War II, the piece expresses Strauss's mourning of, among other things, the destruction of German culture—including the bombing of every great opera house in the nation.<ref name="McGlaughlin"/> At the end of the war, Strauss wrote in his private diary:
<blockquote>The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=361}}</blockquote>

In April 1945, American soldiers occupying Germany at the end of the war arrived at Strauss's Garmisch estate. As Strauss descended the staircase, he announced to Lieutenant Milton Weiss of the U.S. Army, "I am Richard Strauss, the composer of ''Rosenkavalier'' and ''Salome''." Lt. Weiss, who was also a musician, nodded in recognition. An "Off Limits" sign was subsequently placed on the lawn to protect Strauss.{{sfn|Ross|2009|p=373}} The American oboist [[John de Lancie (oboist)|John de Lancie]], who knew Strauss's orchestral writing for oboe thoroughly, was in the army unit, and asked Strauss to compose an oboe concerto. Initially dismissive of the idea, Strauss completed this late work, his ''[[Oboe Concerto (Strauss)|Oboe Concerto]]'', before the end of the year.<ref name="g1"/>

==="Indian Summer", final years and death (1942–1949)===
[[File:StraussFamilyGrave-FriedhofGarmisch RomanDeckert03092024.jpg|thumb|The grave in 2024]]

The metaphor "[[Indian summer]]" has been used by journalists, biographers, and music critics, notably<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/concert/programmes/appointment/audio/2588846/four-last-songs | title=''Four Last Songs'' (Richard Strauss)| author=Peter Shaw |date=9 November 2019 |publisher=[[Radio New Zealand]]}}</ref> [[Norman Del Mar]] in 1964,<ref>{{cite journal | title=Some Centenary Reflections | author=[[Norman Del Mar]]|journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]|date=Summer 1964|number=69, Richard Strauss 1864–1964|pages=2–5|publisher=Cambridge University Press|jstor=942721}}</ref> to describe Strauss's late creative upsurge from 1942 to the end of his life. The events of World War II seemed to bring the composer – who had grown old, tired, and a little jaded – into focus.<ref name="McGlaughlin">[[Bill McGlaughlin|McGlaughlin, Bill]]. ''[[Exploring Music]]'', [http://exploringmusic.wfmt.com/listen-to-the-show/151/strauss-richard Episode 5 of 5 of "Richard Strauss"], first aired 9 January 2004. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614075617/https://www.wfmt.com/programs/exploring-music/ |date=14 June 2024 |nolink=y}}</ref> The major works of the last years of Strauss's life, written in his late 70s and 80s, include, among others, his ''[[Horn Concerto No. 2 (Strauss)|Horn Concerto No. 2]]'', ''[[Metamorphosen]]'', his ''[[Oboe Concerto (Strauss)|Oboe Concerto]]'', his ''[[Duet concertino for clarinet and bassoon]]'', and his ''[[Four Last Songs]]''.<ref name="g1"/>

In June 1945, after finishing ''Metamorphosen'', Strauss completed his Sonatina No 2 in E-flat major ("''Fröhliche Werkstatt''") for 16 wind instruments, which he had begun in early 1944; at the end of the score he wrote "To the [[Manes]] of the divine [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] at the end of a life full of thankfulness".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=365}} 

Like those of most Germans, Strauss's bank accounts were frozen, and many of his assets seized by American forces. Now elderly and with very few resources left, Strauss and his wife left Germany for Switzerland in October 1945 where they settled in a hotel outside Zurich, and later at the Montreux Palace hotel in Montreux. There they met the Swiss music critic [[Willi Schuh (musicologist)|Willy Schuh]], who became Strauss's biographer. Short of money, in 1947 Strauss embarked on his last international tour, a three-week trip to London, in which he conducted several of his tone poems and excerpts of his operas, and was present during a complete staging of ''Elektra'' by the [[BBC]]. The trip was a critical success and provided him and his wife with some much-needed money.<ref name="g1"/>

From May to September 1948, just before his death, Strauss composed the ''Four Last Songs'', which deal with the subject of dying. The last one, "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset), ends with the line "Is this perhaps death?" The question is not answered in words, but instead Strauss quotes the "transfiguration theme" from his earlier tone poem ''Death and Transfiguration'' — meant to symbolize the transfiguration and fulfilment of the soul after death. In June 1948, he was cleared of any wrong-doing by a [[denazification]] tribunal in Munich.<ref name="g1"/> That same month he orchestrated ''[[Ruhe, meine Seele!]]'', a song that he had originally composed in 1894.<ref name="g1"/>

In December 1948, Strauss was hospitalized for several weeks after undergoing bladder surgery.<ref name="g1"/> His health rapidly deteriorated after that, and he conducted his last performance, the end of Act 2 of ''Der Rosenkavalier'' at the [[Prinzregententheater]] in Munich, during celebrations of his 85th birthday on 10 June 1949. On 15 August, he suffered a heart attack and he quietly died of kidney failure in his sleep shortly after 2 PM on 8 September 1949, in [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]], [[West Germany]].<ref name="g1"/> From his death-bed, he remarked to his daughter-in-law Alice, "dying is just as I composed it in ''Tod und Verklärung''".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=113}} [[Georg Solti]], who had arranged Strauss's 85th birthday celebration, also directed an orchestra during Strauss's burial.<ref>''Portrait of Sir Georg Solti.'', documentary (1984), directed by Valerie Pitts</ref> The conductor later described how, during the singing of the famous trio from ''Rosenkavalier'', "each singer broke down in tears and dropped out of the ensemble, but they recovered themselves and we all ended together".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=394}} Strauss's wife, Pauline de Ahna, died eight months later on 13 May 1950 at the age of 88.<ref name="Kennedy 1999, p. 395">{{harvnb|Kennedy|1999|p=395}}</ref> 

Strauss himself declared in 1947 with characteristic self-deprecation: "I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer." The Canadian pianist [[Glenn Gould]] described Strauss in 1962 as "the greatest musical figure who has lived in this century".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=3}}