In 1885 he was appointed assistant conductor at Meiningen,
rising to principal conductor a few months later. However, he had his sights set
firmly on greater things and moved on quickly to the Munich Court
Opera, gathering valuable experience of the operatic repertoire.
Like Mahler, throughout his life he earned a living by conducting,
using his free time to compose. He later met Mahler and, though
wan' of one another, they became friends. In 1889 Strauss began
work at the Weimar Opera House and gained his first compositional
success with the symphonic poem Don Juan, rapidly
establishing a reputation as the most significant German composer
since Wagner. The period from 1894 to 1902 was one of intense
activity, during which Strauss continued his series of symphonic
tone poems (works that refer to an external "programme" — often a
book — and use instruments to tell a story or illustrate a theme).
Among these, Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake
Zarathustra; 1896) is one of the grandest in design: based on the
text by Nietzsche, it uses huge orchestral forces to depict the
evolution of the human race. Don Quixote (1897—8) is a
portrayal of scenes from the classic novel by Cervantes, in which
the cello represents the knight and the viola his servant Sancho
Panza. Symphonia domestica (1902-3) describes in music a
day in the life of Strauss's own household.
Strauss accepted the post of chief conductor at the Royal Court
Opera at Berlin in 1 898 and during his first season conducted 71
performances of 25 different operas. The next decade was also one
of frenetic compositional activity. His third opera, Salome,
from Oscar Wilde's play, caused massive controversy when
performed in 1905. This sensual and erotic work was received with
such enthusiasm at the first performance that Strauss had to make
38 curtain calls. Despite dealing with a biblical subject, the
music is dramatic and sexual in a manner that had never before
been heard, and the scandal it provoked led to huge attendances
across Germany.
In 1909 Strauss produced Elektra, his first opera to a
libretto by German poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The emotionally
charged music and the story of vengeance and burning resentment
again attracted media attention: opera houses were packed with
audiences wanting to hear the "decadent" and "immoral" music. Hofmannsthal would be
Strauss's regular collaborator until his death in 1929.
Strauss's next opera, Der Rosekavalier, was a shock
of a different nature. Without warning Strauss renounced his
reputation as a "progressive"' composer, and produced a Mozartian
opera full of memorable tunes and Viennese waltzes. It is a warm,
human work, received with an almost universal acclaim that has
never abated. It is a measure of Strauss's prominence that special
Rosenkavalier trains ran from Berlin to Dresden for the
first performance. He followed the work with the delightful
Ariadne auf Naxos, a subtle combination of the comic and the
romantic.
Immediately after World War I, Strauss signed a five-year
contract with the Vienna Opera House, then perhaps the most
prestigious position in Europe. His magnificence as a conductor
was incontrovertible, but he was forced to resign in 1924 due to
antagonism with the management, who regarded his infamous
financial extravagance as unacceptable. The rest of the interwar
period was less happy. His compositions met with diminishing
success and rumours of connections with the Nazis led to
difficulties; the extent of his involvement with Hitler's
government is still a shadowy and controversial subject.
Undoubtedly his true concern was music, but his conducting of
Wagner's Parsifal in 1933, after the previous conductor had
resigned in protest at the Nazi regime, lost him much respect
outside Germany.
Among Strauss's late works is the conversation piece
Capriccio, which discusses the relative importance in opera of
words and music. He continued to compose thoughout World War II,
and was stimulated by its horrors to a final outpouring of
compositions. Metamorphosen (1945), for 23 strings, is an
elegy for the pre-war German musical life shattered beyond
recognition by the conflict. In 1945 he moved to Switzerland while
being investigated by the denazification board; he returned to
Berlin a free citizen three years later. He died in 1949, a year
after completing the serenely beautiful Four last songs,
settings of poems by Hesse and Eichendorff for soprano and
orchestra.
Termed by many the last of the great Romantics, Strauss left an
extraordinary catalogue of works, whose power and warmth have
earned them an unassailable position in musical life today.
