Editing Richard Strauss (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Richard Strauss young portrait (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Richard Strauss]]
TIME magazine suggested in 1927 that he wrote music to test how much "cacophony, dissonance, exaggeration, and clowning" his audiences would applaud. Early in Strauss's career, eminent musicologist Hugo Riemann reflected "His last works only too clearly reveal his determination to make a sensation at all costs".<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=1927-01-24 |title=Music: Intermezzo |language=en-US |magazine=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,786713,00.html |access-date=2023-01-14 |issn=0040-781X}}</ref>

Until the 1980s, Strauss was regarded by some post-modern musicologists as a conservative, backward-looking composer, but re-examination of and new research on the composer has re-evaluated his place as that of a modernist,<ref>Shirley, Hugo (2012). "In Search of Strauss" in ''[[Journal of the Royal Musical Association]]'', vol. 137, issue 1, pp. 187–192</ref> albeit one who still utilized and sometimes revered tonality and lush orchestration.{{sfn|Hepokoski|2010|p=78}} Strauss is noted for his pioneering subtleties of orchestration, combined with an advanced harmonic style; when he first played Strauss at a university production of ''[[Ariadne auf Naxos]]'', the conductor [[Mark Elder]] "was flabbergasted. I had no idea music could do the things he was doing with [[harmony]] and melody."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/16/richard-strauss-voice-concerts-150-anniversary-composer|title=Richard Strauss: profound genius or gifted entertainer?|author1=[[Tom Service]]|author2=Imogen Tilden|date=17 January 2014|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=8 January 2022}}</ref>

Strauss's music had a considerable influence on composers at the start of the 20th century. [[Béla Bartók]] heard ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' in 1902, and later said that the work "contained the seeds for a new life"; a Straussian influence is clearly present in his works of that period, including his [[String Quartet No. 1 (Bartók)|First String Quartet]], ''[[Kossuth (Bartók)|Kossuth]]'', and ''[[Bluebeard's Castle]]''.<ref>Elliott Antokoletz and Paolo Susanni, ''Béla Bartók: A Research and Information Guide'', 2nd revised edition (1997), Routledge, London, {{ISBN|978-0-8153-2088-3}}, Introduction p. xxi.</ref> Similarly, Strauss had a huge impact on [[Arnold Schönberg]]<ref>See Craig De Wilde, "Arnold Schoenberg and Richard Strauss", in 
''The Cambridge Companion to Schoenberg'', edited by Jennifer Shaw and Joseph Auner, Cambridge University Press, 2011, 68–78.</ref> and [[Anton Webern]].<ref>See for example, Sebastian Wedler, "Thus Spoke the Early Modernist: Zarathustra and Rotational Form in Webern's String Quartet (1905)", ''Twentieth-Century Music'' 12/2 (2015), 225-251.</ref> [[Karol Szymanowski]] was also greatly influenced by Strauss, reflected in such pieces as his ''Concert Overture'' and his first and [[Symphony No. 2 (Szymanowski)|second]] symphonies,<ref>Paul Caldrin, "Orchestra music and orchestration", pp. 166–169 in Paul Cadrin and Stephen Downes (editors), ''The Szymanowski Companion'', Routledge, London, revised edition (2015). {{ISBN|978-0-7546-6151-1}}</ref> and his opera ''[[Hagith (opera)|Hagith]]'' which was modeled after ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]''. English composers were also influenced by Strauss, from [[Edward Elgar]] in his concert overture ''[[In the South (Alassio)]]'' and other works<ref>Ian Parrott, ''Elgar (Master Musician)'', Everyman Ltd, London, First Edition (1971), p. 60.</ref> to [[Benjamin Britten]] in his opera writing. Many contemporary composers recognise a debt to Strauss, including [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]] and [[John Corigliano]].<ref>[[Alex Ross (music critic)|Ross, Alex]] (2010). "Strauss's Place in the Twentieth Century". In ''The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss'', edited by Charles Youmans, 195–212. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-521-72815-7}}. p. 211.</ref>

Strauss's musical style played a major role in the development of film music in the middle of the 20th century. The style of his musical depictions of character (Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, the Hero) and emotions found their way into the lexicon of film music. Film music historian Timothy Schuerer wrote, "The elements of post (late) romantic music that had greatest impact on scoring are its lush sound, expanded harmonic language, chromaticism, use of program music and use of [[Leitmotif]]s. Hollywood composers found the post-romantic idiom compatible with their efforts in scoring film".<ref>Timothy Scheurer, ''Music and Mythmaking in Film'', Mcfarland, 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-7864-3190-8}}. p. 41.</ref> [[Max Steiner]] and [[Erich Korngold]] came from the same musical world as Strauss and were quite naturally drawn to write in his style. As film historian Roy Prendergast wrote, "When confronted with the kind of dramatic problem films presented to them, Steiner, Korngold and [[Alfred Newman (composer)|Newman]] ... looked to Wagner, [[Puccini]], Verdi and Strauss for the answers to dramatic film scoring."<ref>Roy Prendergast, ''Film Music: A neglected Art'', W. W. Norton & Company, 1992, {{ISBN|978-0-393-30874-7}}.</ref> Later, the opening to ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' became one of the best-known pieces of film music when [[Stanley Kubrick]] used it in his 1968 movie ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. The film music of [[John Williams]] has continued the Strauss influence, in scores for mainstream hits such as ''[[Superman (1978 film)|Superman]]'' and ''[[Star Wars]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/richard-strausss-influence-film-music/|title=WQXR – New York's Classical Music Radio Station|access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref>

Strauss has always been popular with audiences in the concert hall and continues to be so. He has consistently been in the top 10 composers most performed by symphony orchestras in the US and Canada over the period 2002–2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanorchestras.org/knowledge-research-innovation/orr-survey/orr-archive.html|title=ORR Archive – League of American Orchestras|access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref> He is also in the top 5 of 20th-century composers (born after 1860) in terms of the number of currently available recordings of his works.<ref>[http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/NameList?featured=1&role_wanted=1 Arkivemusic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622230321/http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/NameList?featured=1&role_wanted=1 |date=22 June 2018 }}. The ranking is Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Strauss, Prokofiev.</ref>

===Recordings as a conductor===
[[File:DBPB 1954 124 Richard Strauss.jpg|upright=0.8|thumb|left|Stamp issued in 1954]]
Strauss, as conductor, made a large number of recordings, both of his own music as well as music by German and Austrian composers. His 1929 performances of ''Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks'' and ''Don Juan'' with the [[Berlin State Opera Orchestra]] have long been considered the best of his early electrical recordings. In the first complete performance of his ''An Alpine Symphony'', made in 1941 and later released by [[EMI]], Strauss used the full complement of percussion instruments required in this work.

[[Koch records|Koch Legacy]] has also released Strauss's recordings of overtures by [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]], [[Carl Maria von Weber]], [[Peter Cornelius]], and [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]]. The preference for German and Austrian composers in Germany in the 1920s through the 1940s was typical of the German nationalism that existed after [[World War I]]. Strauss clearly capitalized on national pride for the great German-speaking composers.

There were many other recordings, including some taken from radio broadcasts and concerts during the 1930s and early 1940s. The sheer volume of recorded performances would undoubtedly yield some definitive performances from a very capable and rather forward-looking conductor.

In 1944, Strauss celebrated his 80th birthday and conducted the [[Vienna Philharmonic]] in recordings of his own major orchestral works, as well as his seldom-heard ''[[Schlagobers]]'' (''Whipped Cream'') ballet music. Some find more feeling in these performances than in Strauss's earlier recordings, which were recorded on the [[Magnetophon]] tape recording equipment. [[Vanguard Records]] later issued the recordings on LPs. Some of these recordings have been reissued on CD by Preiser. The last recording made by Strauss was on 19 October 1947 live at the [[Royal Albert Hall]] in London, where he conducted the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]] in his ''Burleske'' for piano and orchestra (Alfred Blumen piano), ''Don Juan'' and ''Sinfonia Domestica''.<ref>''Richard Strauss: The Last Concerts'', CD issued by Testament SBT2 1441, 2009</ref>

Strauss also made live-recording [[player piano]] music rolls for the Hupfeld system and in 1906 ten recordings for the [[reproducing piano]] [[Welte-Mignon]] all of which survive today. Strauss was also the composer of the music on the first CD to be commercially released: [[Deutsche Grammophon]]'s 1983 release of their 1980 recording of [[Herbert von Karajan]] conducting the ''Alpine Symphony''.

[[File:The orchestra and its instruments (1917) (14780185164).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Strauss conducting ({{Circa|1900}})]]
[[Pierre Boulez]] has said that Strauss the conductor was "a complete master of his trade".{{sfn|Boulez|2003|p={{Page needed|date=December 2013}}}} Music critic [[Harold C. Schonberg]] writes that, while Strauss was a very fine conductor, he often put scant effort into his recordings.{{sfn|Schonberg|1967|p={{Page needed|date=December 2013}}}} Schonberg focused primarily on Strauss's recordings of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s [[Symphony No. 40 (Mozart)|Symphony No. 40]] and [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 7]], as well as noting that Strauss played a breakneck version of Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|9th Symphony]] in about 45 minutes. Concerning Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Schonberg wrote, "There is almost never a ''ritard'' or a change in expression or nuance. The slow movement is almost as fast as the following ''vivace''; and the last movement, with a big cut in it, is finished in 4 minutes, 25 seconds. (It should run between 7 and 8 minutes.)"{{sfn|Schonberg|1967|p={{Page needed|date=December 2013}}}} He also complained that the Mozart symphony had "no force, no charm, no inflection, with a metronomic rigidity".

[[Peter Gutmann (journalist)|Peter Gutmann]]'s 1994 review for ''ClassicalNotes.com'' says the performances of the Beethoven 5th and 7th symphonies, as well as Mozart's last three symphonies, are actually quite good, even if they are sometimes unconventional. Gutmann wrote:
<blockquote>It is true, as the critics suggest, that the readings forego overt emotion, but what emerges instead is a solid sense of structure, letting the music speak convincingly for itself. It is also true that Strauss's tempos are generally swift, but this, too, contributes to the structural cohesion and in any event is fully in keeping with our modern outlook in which speed is a virtue and attention spans are defined more by MTV clips and news sound bites than by evenings at the opera and thousand page novels.<ref>Peter Gutmann, [http://www.classicalnotes.net/reviews/strauss.html "Richard Strauss Conducts"] on classicalnotes.net</ref></blockquote>