Strauss: Ein Heldenleben & Don Juan

Featuring

Bernard Haitink
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Richard Strauss

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Richard Strauss playfully suggested that his most opulent scores, like the operas Salome and Elektra, should be conducted "as if they had been written by Mendelssohn: elfin music."

Composition History

Richard Strauss, at 25, reported to his father that his new work, Don Juan, would make a "tremendous stir," a prediction that proved true at its 1889 premiere.

Composer Biography

The solo violin in Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life) represents Richard Strauss's wife, Pauline, who he described as "a bit rough, but she's what I need."

Performer Biography

Bernard Haitink, the conductor on this album, was the London Philharmonic Orchestra's principal Conductor from 1967-79 and is now Conductor Laureate of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Composer Biography

Richard Strauss's father, Franz Strauss, was the principal horn of the Munich Court Orchestra and a phenomenal player, influencing his son's formidable horn writing.

Composition History

Richard Strauss composed Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life) partly to fulfill a "pressing need" because he felt Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony was "so little beloved of our conductors."

Compositional Technique

In Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), Richard Strauss portrays his critics with "weirdly chattering woodwind figures" and a "lumpen fifths" motif for tubas.