My love for his music is eternal I really don’t care for his conducting but I truly believe that the world would be empty without his music. In my 33 years serving in orchestra I’ve played almost everything from Strauss . That made my life a special one
He is 80 yrs old. I’ve seen photos of him circa 1900 where he appears to be quite energetic with his arm movements. He composed from the age of 6 up to Four Last Songs in 1948 at the age of 84. I’d call that pretty good.
You have to see over his little gestrures, moves and gaze: It is all there, every information and emotions but in sublime reservation. When you are the great Richard Strauss you have enough aura to reduce your moves to a minimum.
It is like having heard Mahler!!! Both were contemporaneous conductors and composers!!! I can have an certain idea what Mahler was as a conductor... It is like imagining Anton Rubinstein playing through Josef Hoffman video or Chopin and Liszt with Francis Plante´s.
99% of the conductor's work is done before the actual performance. The stick-waving in front of the audience is almost meaningless in a lot of ways. Indeed, some orchestras perform without anyone directing from the front at all, or by someone who performs within the orchestra (ie. Stephanie Gonley). Indeed, orchestras performing without someone standing in front was the norm prior to 1750 or so. And even into the 19th century, it was very common, especially in concertante works (the soloist was the "conductor"). So anyways, Strauss standing there with the baton is virtually irrelevant as far as showing him "conducting" goes. He already did the real work before. But it's very, very valuable just to have some of this priceless, precious footage of the man, ANY footage of him doing anything is a treasure.
+Steven Moore Still, necessarily. You're right about Fritz Reiner, and also Toscanini had a similar (true) story. But, in both cases, the orchestras had been severely worked with by a conductor BEFORE each of them got on stage, waving a stick around. It's not without high value, of course, but even in the case of both those famous conductors, the majority of the work had already been done.
Have you watched Toscanini conduct the NBC Orchestra and the young Robert Shaw's University Singers in a very old and grainy black and white early television broadcast of Beethoven's Ninth? The maestro had the orchestra in his right hand and the chorus in his left. Left index finger in the air to signal "get ready" to the chorus, dynamic changes given independently, "dragging" Robert Shaw out from under the risers for his own bow. What you say of many conductors may be true, but we "non cogniscenti" love the great ones.
What you say is what a lot of conductors think nowadays and that's why they all sound similar and boring. In former times there were at lot of conductors who really conducted and they were able to change the orchestra play within the performance. Furtwängler always said not to overestimate rehearsels and in fact in his performances 50% was just decided out of the moment within the performance.
"99% of the conductor's work is done before the actual performance" that is 100% untrue. conductors like Toscanini and Carlos Kleiber (who conduct from memory always)do not always do what was done in the rehearsal. Rehearsal and the actual performance have different energies, a rehearsal doesn't have an audience, the level or nerves is very low. The actual performance has hundreds of people watching, from amateur musicians to music critics. Sometimes the conductor will have different ideas during the performance that were never rehearsed. The importance of a conductor is something many people partially understand. As an aspiring conductor i love to think that the rehearsal is a way of teaching the orchestra how to follow you, just to bring them into your own sound world and how you show it. Watch "Carlos Kleiber conducting Beethoven's 7th symphony, the 4th movement." Then watch other conductors and tell me if you get the same understanding of the same music, not the interpretation but his gestures according to what the music is doing and must do.
As one person said almost disbelievingly upon meeting him for the first time and not knowing what he was like personally, "That's the guy who composed Elektra!?"
When Allied Forces found Strauss after WW2, they showed him much respect and almost reverence, to which their superiors weren't too pleased, (Strauss was thought to be German sympathizer). Your comment is completely true.
I know this clip is of Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspegel", but I couldn't resist thinking about his true masterpiece: "Eine Alpensinfonie". The monumental work is so beloved by me, I actually have the title and opus # (64), tattooed on the back of my neck. It is such a profoundly moving masterpiece. Orchestration is CRAZY gorgeous. I can see why he is thought of as bored while conducting....It probable all came too easy for him. In fact, of the composition/orchestration of the Alpine Symphony tone poem, he said, infamously, " I had more fun killing the cock roaches in this villa than writing this piece". Again, I know this clip is of him conducting "Till Euilenspeigel", but I couldn't resist thinking of the God-birthed Opus 64.
It's not about just interpretation. There is so much more to conducting that many composers just never learn or understand, and many composers tend to get frustrated with an "I meant x so that's what I wrote, why isn't that clear to you?" mentality. The job of a conductor is about interpreting what the composer wrote so that the orchestra can play it. Many composers can't even notate their music efficiently, that's why I have a job -- editing music so that people can read it as intended.
Listen to Strauss conducting Mozart's 40th and 41st symphonies, by far the best recordings of each I've ever heard. Vladimir Horowitz said that music is controlled emotion and this is true. The prioritization of expressing ones emotions instead of letting the music we create do that for us is the reason there are so few great modern composers of romantic music. One must take all the emotion they have and put it into the music even if it leaves ourselves looking emotionless, the music is were all the emotion and beauty lies and that is the only place for it that matters.
@ManhattanPianist Thanks for your comments..Maybe it was his age at the time of the recording that put me off his conducting skills. However it certainly doesnt detract from the fact that he was a master orchestrator and brilliant composer. His tone poems, numerous songs and operas such as Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier are absolute gems .
To quote Stravinsky: "I watched him at rehearsals [of Josephslegende] and I admired the way he conducted. His manner with the orchestra was not admirable, however, and the musicians heartily detested him; but every corrective remark he made was exact: his ears and his musicianship were impregnable."
I am SO troubled --depressed really-- by the remarks suggesting that Strauss was anything less than one of the greatest musical geniuses EVER --and in every way. This notion of a "great composer" but "not-so-gifted interpreter" is absurd: any composer capable of producing so many enduring masterpieces shouldn't have too difficult a time leading an orchestra and achieving precisely what he wants --he's Strauss, for Christsake. . . when you're "the man" a simple glance is enough to move mountains
Are we not done deifying historical figures? Because he was a talented composer no one might suggest that he had flaws? what's with this all or nothing attitude?
I understand his daughter-in-law was Jewish so he "played ball" with the Reich. After the war he moved to Switzerland, I would say he was beyond "over it" and it looks so in this video---probably filmed for propaganda purposes.
yes youve hit the nail on the head! so to speak. Strauss is in so many ways a German Tchaikovsy. I never thought of it like that before. However his orchestration was far more advanced and innovative and 'daring' when compared to the Russian. And you have to admit that Strauss really explored new fields in composition, Salome and Elektra being prome examples of that. / Mahler was a symphonist and song writer, Strauss was a brilliant orchestrator and song writer. Both experts!
a good point. Strauss was born 24 years later than Tchaikovsky so you'd hope he was more advanced than his predecessor . In general we celebrate artists who push things forward as opposed to create replicas. Tchaikovsky is great on his own terms of course.
My dear George Szell. Do you think he could make an orchestra sound like this if he was bored? (confirms my belief. That conducting is really a MENTAL thing.) (also look at Klemperer in his old age. Does virtually nothing. And the orchestra thunders.)
@CharlesWilburPiano furtwangler, who was commonly accused of being "vague" in his gestures, said that 50% is rehearsal and 50% is in the moment. he said his vague gestures are calculated and deliberate. you would be surprised how much a conductor could do right away without overt gestures. strauss was a brilliant conductor.
Un genio! Metamorphosen e i Quattro Ultimi Lieder vanno ben oltre l'invenzione musicale. Assieme al Verklarte Nacht di Schonberg, sono parte della mia vita.
@violinscratcher i think you are right in that rehearsal ability. communicating there already sets much of the performance. i think a lot can be said for conducting with the eyes.
@violinscratcher 2) I once had an experience in conducting class with one of new york's top choral conductors - and in our class my assignment was Brahm's Requiem with our class as the "choir" plus a fellow pianist. at a certain point - the recap of the opening measures of the first section -
Es muy loco. Tiene en el rostro una expresión como si encontrara aburrida su propia música. La mayoría de sus movimientos no pasan de una área de 50 centímetros a la redonda. Total compostura, cero intensidad. Ni un solo sobresalto! Para mí es increible que este hombre haya sido el autor de obras tan épicas como Así habló Saratustra o Don Juan, obras en donde se supone que existan emociones muy intensas. En fin, una de las figuras más emblemáticas de una sino la época más exaltada de la historia de la música hasta ahora: El post-romanticismo. Así suelen ser los grandes genios de la música. Totalmente impredecibles jejejejje.
There Is never been a conductor Better then himself for his music ,no Karajan no other only Reiner and differently Furtwängler can be a Little compared to the true of his Deep essential pholosofocal vision and perfect of rendition!
@flylooper idk he was pretty daring...salome, elektra and also sprach all have some borderline atonal passages...even Schoenberg himself said that Strauss was the only true innovator of the period
@violinscratcher Well, I'm glad you interpret things that way, but only from the incredibly very little I see here, I think George Szell's comments about the "not interested" are, at least in this short instance, highly appropriate. And for that I really laugh! I will say not all great composers are also great (or even good conductors), however, as Strauss spent a huge portion of his life as a principal conductor, I am totally sure his technique and rehersal ability were incredibly well honed.
@violinscratcher - (" ... moves to a minimum.") - I think it's called, concision ... and it works very well, here. George Szell's comments are right, also; often, Strauss was "beating time", and waiting for the card game, after a performance!
You don't get much of Strauss's music-making in this, but it's enough. This is, probably, 1944. Listen to the strings. And if you can, to the recording of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme suite made during the 1944 Vienna concerts. When it mattered to him (Szell is right - it didn't always matter) as it did here, the playing is as good as it gets. Few later Strauss conductors bother to listen to what he does in his own music, and how he interprets his own notation. That includes Szell.
@flylooper "nothing original after Salome"??? you have got to be joking. Elektra reached new heights in orchestration and even his last Opera Capriccio is original in all senses of the word! And that's not taking in to consideration the last orhestral works of his final years.
@violinscratcher 3) i somehow "stopped" beating and gesturing - and simply turned my shoulder to the pianist's solo - who did exactly what I had in mind, by looking at the pianist with a different intensity - an extreme Pianissimo ,..and the teacher stopped all of us - and pointed "did you SEE what he did? THAT"s what we aim for ultimately...when all gestures are no longer necessary"..it was a nice experience actually. and to me personally, it felt more "satisfying" .
I see the comments and it's obvious that some people don't realize that the performance on this video was taking place during the war WWII, (almost in the end of it), and Richard Strauss had very hard time during the war and he lost family members. His son's wife was Jewish (and so his grandchildren) and most members of her family were put to death by the Nazis. He tried to save them but he didn't succeed. So, what we see here has nothing to do with boredom, but it is the circumstances of the very harsh life back then ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss#Nazi_Germany_(1933%E2%80%931945)
Listening to this is all about exquisite detail. There are details in Strauss scores, particularly in Don Juan, which only he takes the trouble to get right. The sound here is, for 1944, if that's when the footage was made, extraordinarily good. Pity about the TV director's lack of interest in what he was dealing with - talking heads don't help.
No, Johann Strauss has nothing to do with this. This is Richard Strauss conducting his own "Till Eulenspiegel." Not only was Richard Strauss one of the greatest composers ever, he was also one of the most gifted conductors the world has ever known.
@flylooper he's not 'just beating time.' really. I admit it's hard even for the best of musicians to often understand what conductors do. but what he is doing is as pertinent to the music as what klemperer does or what furtwangler does or celibidache does. believe me, a good orchestra being led by a conductor who doesn't know what he's doing does not sound good at all. this is a brilliant performance. i agree, look at klemperer conducting.
DavidFick, we gain nothing by deifying musicians; one of the least attractive (and most alienating) traits of the classical music business is the habit of talking about musicians and composers as though they come from another planet. The most interesting thing about Strauss is precisely how he was such a brilliant musician whilst simultaneously being this *very* pedestrian, almost civil servant-like, professional. The title of the Sinfonia Domestica says it all, I guess.
Some wonderful music by this composer, but he accommodated the Nazi party to stay in the top tier of German music during Hitler’s regime. He didn’t join the party, but he benefited from his acquiescence. For that reason, I always have mixed feelings about his music.
He protected his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren who were Jewish. And he had a real feeling that he could help protect German culture. He stayed and he worked. He hated the Nazis. He outlived Goebbels and Hitler and passed away in 1949 at the age of 85.
what idiotic nonsens..!!!!....just from looking to the orchestra, you can tell, that these guys are all nazis???? there where a lot of jewish by that time in the orchestra playing...one of them was my grandfather!!!
His economic conducting seems to be saying: “Well, I wrote all the notes for you, for goodness sake how much more help do you need?”
My love for his music is eternal
I really don’t care for his conducting but I truly believe that the world would be empty without his music. In my 33 years serving in orchestra I’ve played almost everything from Strauss . That made my life a special one
bro he was a wonderful conductor! listen! he just looks boredbut he was an excellent conductor
He is 80 yrs old. I’ve seen photos of him circa 1900 where he appears to be quite energetic with his arm movements.
He composed from the age of 6 up to Four Last Songs in 1948 at the age of 84. I’d call that pretty good.
"This music sure is nice. Oh, right! I wrote it."
You have to see over his little gestrures, moves and gaze: It is all there, every information and emotions but in sublime reservation. When you are the great Richard Strauss you have enough aura to reduce your moves to a minimum.
ABSOLUTELY
I don't know but is a freaking amazing composer
absolutely FANTASTIC amazing ... Love and Respect FOREVER
The first time I saw this clip I was awed, absolutely awed. It was like seeing Mozart on the podium.
Szell conducted the first half of the recording session of the premier recording of "Don Juan", because Strauss had overslept.
I love the way the great man still refers to the score while conducting his own music. A real professional.
It is like having heard Mahler!!!
Both were contemporaneous conductors and composers!!!
I can have an certain idea what Mahler was as a conductor...
It is like imagining Anton Rubinstein playing through Josef Hoffman video or Chopin and Liszt with Francis Plante´s.
But Mahler was known to be histrionic on the podium....
That can only have been a good thing.
What a conductor!!!
One the greats of the Late Romantic period.
how simply played. i think most conductors took too much out of the music - this sounds sublime!!!! bravo maestro!
99% of the conductor's work is done before the actual performance. The stick-waving in front of the audience is almost meaningless in a lot of ways. Indeed, some orchestras perform without anyone directing from the front at all, or by someone who performs within the orchestra (ie. Stephanie Gonley). Indeed, orchestras performing without someone standing in front was the norm prior to 1750 or so. And even into the 19th century, it was very common, especially in concertante works (the soloist was the "conductor").
So anyways, Strauss standing there with the baton is virtually irrelevant as far as showing him "conducting" goes. He already did the real work before. But it's very, very valuable just to have some of this priceless, precious footage of the man, ANY footage of him doing anything is a treasure.
+Steven Moore
Still, necessarily.
You're right about Fritz Reiner, and also Toscanini had a similar (true) story. But, in both cases, the orchestras had been severely worked with by a conductor BEFORE each of them got on stage, waving a stick around. It's not without high value, of course, but even in the case of both those famous conductors, the majority of the work had already been done.
Have you watched Toscanini conduct the NBC Orchestra and the young Robert Shaw's University Singers in a very old and grainy black and white early television broadcast of Beethoven's Ninth? The maestro had the orchestra in his right hand and the chorus in his left. Left index finger in the air to signal "get ready" to the chorus, dynamic changes given independently, "dragging" Robert Shaw out from under the risers for his own bow. What you say of many conductors may be true, but we "non cogniscenti" love the great ones.
What you say is what a lot of conductors think nowadays and that's why they all sound similar and boring. In former times there were at lot of conductors who really conducted and they were able to change the orchestra play within the performance. Furtwängler always said not to overestimate rehearsels and in fact in his performances 50% was just decided out of the moment within the performance.
That's true. Just listen different Performances of the same Piece he did. You will see that every Performance is different.
"99% of the conductor's work is done before the actual performance" that is 100% untrue. conductors like Toscanini and Carlos Kleiber (who conduct from memory always)do not always do what was done in the rehearsal. Rehearsal and the actual performance have different energies, a rehearsal doesn't have an audience, the level or nerves is very low. The actual performance has hundreds of people watching, from amateur musicians to music critics. Sometimes the conductor will have different ideas during the performance that were never rehearsed. The importance of a conductor is something many people partially understand. As an aspiring conductor i love to think that the rehearsal is a way of teaching the orchestra how to follow you, just to bring them into your own sound world and how you show it. Watch "Carlos Kleiber conducting Beethoven's 7th symphony, the 4th movement." Then watch other conductors and tell me if you get the same understanding of the same music, not the interpretation but his gestures according to what the music is doing and must do.
Richard Strauss: "One shouldn't transpire while conducting."
As one person said almost disbelievingly upon meeting him for the first time and not knowing what he was like personally, "That's the guy who composed Elektra!?"
When Allied Forces found Strauss after WW2, they showed him much respect and almost reverence, to which their superiors weren't too pleased, (Strauss was thought to be German sympathizer). Your comment is completely true.
@@metalheadjock3513not German, nazi sympathiser
I know this clip is of Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspegel", but I couldn't resist thinking about his true masterpiece: "Eine Alpensinfonie". The monumental work is so beloved by me, I actually have the title and opus # (64), tattooed on the back of my neck. It is such a profoundly moving masterpiece. Orchestration is CRAZY gorgeous.
I can see why he is thought of as bored while conducting....It probable all came too easy for him. In fact, of the composition/orchestration of the Alpine Symphony tone poem, he said, infamously, " I had more fun killing the cock roaches in this villa than writing this piece". Again, I know this clip is of him conducting "Till Euilenspeigel", but I couldn't resist thinking of the God-birthed Opus 64.
It's not about just interpretation. There is so much more to conducting that many composers just never learn or understand, and many composers tend to get frustrated with an "I meant x so that's what I wrote, why isn't that clear to you?" mentality.
The job of a conductor is about interpreting what the composer wrote so that the orchestra can play it. Many composers can't even notate their music efficiently, that's why I have a job -- editing music so that people can read it as intended.
A little bit of Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks to make your day.
He commands the band with but a glance.
Listen to Strauss conducting Mozart's 40th and 41st symphonies, by far the best recordings of each I've ever heard. Vladimir Horowitz said that music is controlled emotion and this is true. The prioritization of expressing ones emotions instead of letting the music we create do that for us is the reason there are so few great modern composers of romantic music. One must take all the emotion they have and put it into the music even if it leaves ourselves looking emotionless, the music is were all the emotion and beauty lies and that is the only place for it that matters.
@ManhattanPianist Thanks for your comments..Maybe it was his age at the time of the recording that put me off his conducting skills. However it certainly doesnt detract from the fact that he was a master orchestrator and brilliant composer. His tone poems, numerous songs and operas such as Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier are absolute gems .
Indeed!
I would like to know how Strauss treated the orchestra during the rehearsals ;-)
Contrabassi! corte note! Always late!
To quote Stravinsky:
"I watched him at rehearsals [of Josephslegende] and I admired the way he conducted. His manner with the orchestra was not admirable, however, and the musicians heartily detested him; but every corrective remark he made was exact: his ears and his musicianship were impregnable."
@@WetaMantis Nope, that was Toscanini.
Strauss wasn't bored, he was a tired old man! He was a great conductor. And remember, we are seeing the genius who created Also Sprach!
I am SO troubled --depressed really-- by the remarks suggesting that Strauss was anything less than one of the greatest musical geniuses EVER --and in every way. This notion of a "great composer" but "not-so-gifted interpreter" is absurd: any composer capable of producing so many enduring masterpieces shouldn't have too difficult a time leading an orchestra and achieving precisely what he wants --he's Strauss, for Christsake. . . when you're "the man" a simple glance is enough to move mountains
Are we not done deifying historical figures? Because he was a talented composer no one might suggest that he had flaws? what's with this all or nothing attitude?
I mean it's pretty obviosu he didn't take it all that seriously, can't be one of the greatest if there's no passion behind it. most infamous maybe.
I mean if that little depresses you , your life mustn't be that bad .
He wasn't waiting for the card game; he was waiting fir the fall of the Third Reich
I understand his daughter-in-law was Jewish so he "played ball" with the Reich. After the war he moved to Switzerland, I would say he was beyond "over it" and it looks so in this video---probably filmed for propaganda purposes.
der Richard Strauss konnte nicht nur genial dirigieren sondern auch noch genial komponieren:-)))) Bravo Strauss:-)))
I agree. In fact his aura is so fantastic that he could have reduced his moves to nothing.
yes youve hit the nail on the head! so to speak. Strauss is in so many ways a German Tchaikovsy. I never thought of it like that before. However his orchestration was far more advanced and innovative and 'daring' when compared to the Russian. And you have to admit that Strauss really explored new fields in composition, Salome and Elektra being prome examples of that. / Mahler was a symphonist and song writer, Strauss was a brilliant orchestrator and song writer. Both experts!
a good point. Strauss was born 24 years later than Tchaikovsky so you'd hope he was more advanced than his predecessor . In general we celebrate artists who push things forward as opposed to create replicas. Tchaikovsky is great on his own terms of course.
He didn't need to give anything else than time, because his interpretation is written in the scores already. :D
I love it when Strauss grimaces during the performance, as if he heard something sour.
My dear George Szell. Do you think he could make an orchestra sound like this if he was bored? (confirms my belief. That conducting is really a MENTAL thing.) (also look at Klemperer in his old age. Does virtually nothing. And the orchestra thunders.)
Csodálatos ember és művész! A wonderful man and composer! Ein Wunderbarer Mensch und Tondichter, und seine Musik ist volkommen.
@CharlesWilburPiano furtwangler, who was commonly accused of being "vague" in his gestures, said that 50% is rehearsal and 50% is in the moment. he said his vague gestures are calculated and deliberate. you would be surprised how much a conductor could do right away without overt gestures. strauss was a brilliant conductor.
Un genio! Metamorphosen e i Quattro Ultimi Lieder vanno ben oltre l'invenzione musicale. Assieme al Verklarte Nacht di Schonberg, sono parte della mia vita.
@violinscratcher i think you are right in that rehearsal ability. communicating there already sets much of the performance. i think a lot can be said for conducting with the eyes.
@violinscratcher 2) I once had an experience in conducting class with one of new york's top choral conductors - and in our class my assignment was Brahm's Requiem with our class as the "choir" plus a fellow pianist. at a certain point - the recap of the opening measures of the first section -
Bored but what an electrifying result
Any clip of Wagner conducting Ride of Valkyrie?
You think camera's existed in the mid-1800's?
@@FreakieFan i don't think. I know they existed in mid-1800's.
Excelent conductor. Today's conductors dance too much. Strauss's movements are plein of effect and musicality, and the result is beautiful
Es muy loco.
Tiene en el rostro una expresión como si encontrara aburrida su propia música.
La mayoría de sus movimientos no pasan de una área de 50 centímetros a la redonda.
Total compostura, cero intensidad.
Ni un solo sobresalto!
Para mí es increible que este hombre haya sido el autor de obras tan épicas como Así habló Saratustra o Don Juan, obras en donde se supone que existan emociones muy intensas.
En fin, una de las figuras más emblemáticas de una sino la época más exaltada de la historia de la música hasta ahora: El post-romanticismo.
Así suelen ser los grandes genios de la música. Totalmente impredecibles jejejejje.
Some of the greatest conductors don't do much while conducting. Like Pierre Boulez!
@@bardokitty very interesting. That's certainly the most obvious antecedent!
what is the name of the concertmaster?
There Is never been a conductor Better then himself for his music ,no Karajan no other only Reiner and differently Furtwängler can be a Little compared to the true of his Deep essential pholosofocal vision and perfect of rendition!
Reminds me of John Williams conducting. May I should do the same when I conduct my music in the future.
Similarities end there. JW a great/genius craftsman. Strauss obviously much more than that.
@flylooper idk he was pretty daring...salome, elektra and also sprach all have some borderline atonal passages...even Schoenberg himself said that Strauss was the only true innovator of the period
@violinscratcher Well, I'm glad you interpret things that way, but only from the incredibly very little I see here, I think George Szell's comments about the "not interested" are, at least in this short instance, highly appropriate. And for that I really laugh! I will say not all great composers are also great (or even good conductors), however, as Strauss spent a huge portion of his life as a principal conductor, I am totally sure his technique and rehersal ability were incredibly well honed.
Very interesting , inDeed .
@violinscratcher - (" ... moves to a minimum.") - I think it's called, concision ... and it works very well, here. George Szell's comments are right, also; often, Strauss was "beating time", and waiting for the card game, after a performance!
You don't get much of Strauss's music-making in this, but it's enough. This is, probably, 1944. Listen to the strings. And if you can, to the recording of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme suite made during the 1944 Vienna concerts. When it mattered to him (Szell is right - it didn't always matter) as it did here, the playing is as good as it gets. Few later Strauss conductors bother to listen to what he does in his own music, and how he interprets his own notation. That includes Szell.
Do not forget this film dates from the middle of the war! Difficult circumstances....
He looked at the watch seeking the tempo at 120
@flylooper "nothing original after Salome"???
you have got to be joking. Elektra reached new heights in orchestration and even his last Opera Capriccio is original in all senses of the word! And that's not taking in to consideration the last orhestral works of his final years.
Must have been strange conducting a piece you'd written 50 years before.
@violinscratcher 3) i somehow "stopped" beating and gesturing - and simply turned my shoulder to the pianist's solo - who did exactly what I had in mind, by looking at the pianist with a different intensity - an extreme Pianissimo ,..and the teacher stopped all of us - and pointed "did you SEE what he did? THAT"s what we aim for ultimately...when all gestures are no longer necessary"..it was a nice experience actually. and to me personally, it felt more "satisfying" .
as one can see Strauss was antithesis of Bernstein in conducting--two schools-whose right whose wrong? both valid.
And Bernstein never got as old.
@Galenos117 I see your point, but he looks unenthusiastic from behind also.
oo i have this vhs hehe
I see the comments and it's obvious that some people don't realize that the performance on this video was taking place during the war WWII, (almost in the end of it), and Richard Strauss had very hard time during the war and he lost family members. His son's wife was Jewish (and so his grandchildren) and most members of her family were put to death by the Nazis. He tried to save them but he didn't succeed. So, what we see here has nothing to do with boredom, but it is the circumstances of the very harsh life back then ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss#Nazi_Germany_(1933%E2%80%931945)
Well said IM. He was not bored but rather he was restrained and reserved?
Conducting of Strauss antithesis of flamboyant Bernstein Gergiev etc.
And far beyond that stupid showmen
I love Strauss, but the composer is the best interpreter of their own works not always.
I have a cd, Strauss conducts the "Alpensinfonie" and it is divine.
So this was the moment when musicians got tired of looking at the conductor
Is this really 1944? Was he stuck in Nazi Austria then?
Actually that was Nazi Germany,not Austria.
Sure... George Szell has no idea what he's talking about, huh?!?
Es ist kaum zu glauben, daß Strauss beim Dirigieren wirklich innerlich beteiligt war.
Emotionen kann man keine erkennen.
It's like walking a path that you first walked 45 years ago....there's nothing new or interesting. I don't blame him for being bored.
Listening to this is all about exquisite detail. There are details in Strauss scores, particularly in Don Juan, which only he takes the trouble to get right. The sound here is, for 1944, if that's when the footage was made, extraordinarily good. Pity about the TV director's lack of interest in what he was dealing with - talking heads don't help.
No, Johann Strauss has nothing to do with this. This is Richard Strauss conducting his own "Till Eulenspiegel." Not only was Richard Strauss one of the greatest composers ever, he was also one of the most gifted conductors the world has ever known.
@flylooper he's not 'just beating time.' really. I admit it's hard even for the best of musicians to often understand what conductors do. but what he is doing is as pertinent to the music as what klemperer does or what furtwangler does or celibidache does. believe me, a good orchestra being led by a conductor who doesn't know what he's doing does not sound good at all. this is a brilliant performance. i agree, look at klemperer conducting.
Wasn't that Wagner?
sledgehog1 No, it was Strauss conducting his own music!
There were no cameras in Wagner's time.
It's amazing that such a boring guy could compose such electrifying, outlandish and original music!
He's a pretty old guy here. Unless he had just drank a gallon of coffee or something, I wouldn't expect much out of someone that old.
He was 80 at the time of this recording.
DavidFick, we gain nothing by deifying musicians; one of the least attractive (and most alienating) traits of the classical music business is the habit of talking about musicians and composers as though they come from another planet. The most interesting thing about Strauss is precisely how he was such a brilliant musician whilst simultaneously being this *very* pedestrian, almost civil servant-like, professional. The title of the Sinfonia Domestica says it all, I guess.
Ahahaha leave the conducting to the conductors and the real difficult work for the composers themselves I guess
Parece que se aburre...
:49
that should be 0:49
Strauss was a first-rate second rank composer and a third-rate conductor of his own music.
and you are a first rate idiot!!!!!
Some wonderful music by this composer, but he accommodated the Nazi party to stay in the top tier of German music during Hitler’s regime. He didn’t join the party, but he benefited from his acquiescence. For that reason, I always have mixed feelings about his music.
He protected his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren who were Jewish. And he had a real feeling that he could help protect German culture. He stayed and he worked. He hated the Nazis. He outlived Goebbels and Hitler and passed away in 1949 at the age of 85.
@@brucekuehn4031 so very true. All too easy to adopt an armchair criticism standpoint when it comes to this area.
The beginning of this clip: the VPO in 1944 with all those nazis in the orchestra. What an unpleasant sight.
what idiotic nonsens..!!!!....just from looking to the orchestra, you can tell, that these guys are all nazis???? there where a lot of jewish by that time in the orchestra playing...one of them was my grandfather!!!
Im glad he made a career out of composing and not conducting.
Great composer.......hopeless conductor.
DER KONIG!!!!