Famous Father, Famous Son! Franz and Richard Strauss

By Georg Predota , Interlude

Famous musical sons frequently have famous musical fathers. And Richard Strauss is no exception. In his day, his father Franz was recognized as an important artistic personality. Foremost, he became a celebrated horn virtuoso, by “breathing soul into the unthankful instrument.” Even Richard Wagner, against whom the musically conservative Strauss took literally every opportunity to make his disapproval clear, recognized his unusual talent. “Old Strauss is an unbearable fellow, but when he plays the horn one can’t really mind him.” Franz Strauss became a member of the Royal Court Orchestra in Munich in 1847, and set new standards on his instruments for more than four decades. However, he also dabbled in composition, predictably centered on his favorite instrument.

Franz and Richard Strauss © Wikipedia

Franz Strauss quickly recognized his son’s musical talent and entrusted four and a half-year-old Richard to August Tombo for piano lesson. Before long Richard was able to play the tunes in a book of operatic arrangements, and successfully tackled a Mozart sonata. His older sister remembered, “Richard made swift progress. Sight-reading presented him with no problems. His teacher played with him a great deal, and there was one trick that delighted Richard. His teacher played the bass part with the left hand, the top line with his right hand and the middle part with the tip of his long pointed nose.” Richard first tried his hands at composition at the age of six, when he composed the Schneider-Polka (Tailor Polka) for piano. However, as he was not yet capable of writing music, his father wrote it down for him. 

Young Richard was described by his teacher as “a student with excellent dispositions, good deportment and well behaved; lively, enthusiastic, attentive, sometime over-eager and hasty.” By the time he was 18, Richard had composed roughly 140 compositions, including almost 60 songs and more than 40 piano works. Much of these juvenilia pay homage to the musical creed of his father, who favored the “trinity of Mozart (most of all), Haydn and Beethoven.” The first time Richard heard a Beethoven symphony he did not understand it, he remained unmoved and even said, “he didn’t care of it.” Nor did he understand Beethoven’s sonatas and quartets at that stage. “In his piano lessons he preferred Chopin, Mendelssohn and Bach.” When Richard made his pianistic debut on 20 October 1885, however, he played the Mozart C-minor Concerto with his own cadenzas, which are unfortunately lost. Echoes of Mozart and the Classical style clearly emerge in his Serenade in E-flat for Thirteen Wind Instruments, Opus 7, dedicated to his composition teacher Franz Meyer. 

Franz Strauss ©hornarama.com

At age 21, Richard Strauss took up the post of assistant conductor of the Meiningen Orchestra. Hans von Bülow, a student of Franz Liszt and champion of the music of Richard Wagner and later Johannes Brahms had appointed him. To thank von Bülow, Richard composed a work for piano and orchestra originally titled “Scherzo in D minor.” Bülow considered it a “complicated piece of nonsense and unplayable” and refused to learn it. Strauss made some changes and renamed the work “Burleske” with Eugen d’Albert premiering the work in 1890. Bülow, however, was still not convinced and wrote to Johannes Brahms “Strauss’s Burleske decidedly has some genius in it, but in other respects it is horrifying.” 

Throughout his life, Richard Strauss had the highest admiration for Hans von Bülow. “For anyone who ever heard him play Beethoven or conduct Wagner, who attended one of his piano lessons or observed him in orchestra rehearsal, he inevitably became the model of all the shining virtues of a performing artist, and his touching sympathy for me, his influence on the development of my artistic abilities, were the decisive factors in my career.”

Ever Wonder How Musicians Get Orchestral Positions?

by Janet Horvath  

When you attend an orchestra concert you witness wonderful music-making from a singular group of musicians who seemingly play “as one.” If it’s an orchestra of stature some of the players will remain in their positions an entire lifetime—sometimes decades—and they learn to play together in a distinctive style and with uncanny telepathy. The members relate to one another as if they are a family, sharing not only the music, not only touring and traveling together but also important life events. But how does a musician get an orchestra position? Selection is usually based on a rigorous and often daunting audition process. Initially, once the musician wins an audition and signs a contract, he or she undertakes a probationary period of two years. During the trial period, the musician is evaluated for their playing in the larger context of the group as well as whether their temperament and personality are a good fit.

As you can imagine, the competition is fierce. Some of you may not know that each audition specifies repertoire to play, usually a dozen excerpts from the orchestral (or operatic) repertoire. Additionally, each candidate is also required to perform a concerto and a solo piece, usually solo Bach for string players. Like any competition, there are various rounds as each candidate is evaluated, starting with preliminary auditions, and ending with finals when the conductor is usually involved. The auditions are often held on the stage and initially, the candidate will play the first round behind a screen to maintain anonymity.

The committee that selects the candidates is comprised of eight to ten members of the orchestra—representatives of the section in which the opening has become available, and other musicians who are in that family of instruments. In the case of the French horns, it would be other French horn players, other brass musicians, and when the position is a principal position, the concertmaster, and other leading members.

There are exceptions of course. Some orchestras allow a tape recording for the preliminaries, and in the case of the Berlin Philharmonic, all musicians are in on the decision to hire a new player.

How does someone who has taken multiple auditions without a win, keep going and maintain motivation and a positive attitude? It’s important to take advantage of the resources that are available. Before the internet, when I took my auditions in the 1970s and 80s, the only way to get help was to have some lessons from an orchestral player.

One of the best online resources is Rob Knopper’s AuditionHacker.com, a Metropolitan Opera Orchestra member who knows what winning looks like. Rob’s inner circle is a nine-month commitment of Intensive audition coaching. Winning an audition comprises common sense details, persistence, dedication, and deliberate practice. A successful candidate understands that it’s about the process—learning how to perform the same way you do when you practice, to manage your nerves, to be organized, and to achieve the mindset required to play your best in the fifteen or so minutes you have.

If nerves get the better of you, and who among us hasn’t experienced the jitters, I recommend Noa Kageyama and The BulletProofMusician.com. Noa was a violinist plagued by performance anxiety before he became an expert sports psychologist and a faculty member at Juilliard School of Music. His site offers courses that can help.

When I performed my auditions sometimes the music was difficult to acquire. Today there are online resources with not only downloadable sheet music but also recordings of how these standards are typically played. OrchestraExcerpts.com features the standard excerpts by instrument. Music can also be found on IMSLP.

AuditionPlaybook.com offers individual coaching, guidebooks, interviews, and articles, including thoughts on meditation and mindfulness, practice hacks, even suggestions for pivoting to a career in music that isn’t in an orchestra.

Some professionals I know offer weekly virtual meetings to assess your audition preparation, but individuals can reach out to others to play for each other and give feedback. Weekly mock auditions virtual or otherwise are essential to learn what works and what doesn’t in your preparation. Other sites such as Stagetime, a performing arts hub, offers insider tips, advertises current opportunities and openings, and even offers some Audition Travel Stipends.

A successful audition boils down to these elements:

A decisive audition preparation schedule. Make certain you have plenty of lead time to master all the repertoire. Decide well in advance what your solo will be, choosing a work that is “in your fingers.” Avoid trying something new for an audition.

Determine how to play consistently. This will entail challenging yourself to play under varying conditions. Hold mock auditions enlisting your scariest friends, colleagues, or teachers. Tape yourself and listen for unintended variations in tempo or rhythm, unintended interruptions of the line due to breathing, bow changes, or inefficient shifting, and issues with dynamics.

Aim for peak performance. This will include determining what works in your routine that you can control in an audition setting for your body and mind. Choose foolproof fingerings. Make certain you are using standard bowings, tempos, phrasing, and dynamics for each excerpt.

Practice with a metronome. Intonation is of course essential but rhythmic steadiness and accuracy are crucial in an audition.

Study the music making certain you are not missing indications in the score such as dynamics, crescendos, accents, and phrasing, as well as interpretive musical terms. You should play Mozart differently than Strauss; Debussy differently than Brahms, but also a dolce passage differently than a passage marked espressivo; poco marcato differently than lebhaft. When an audition isn’t imminent become familiar with and practice the excerpts that show up at auditions time after time such as Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade movement II, K to L for the horns, Mahler Symphony No. 3, the opening of the second movement for the oboe, or Brahms Symphony No. 3 movement III the opening melody for the cellos. 

Do your research. Listen to the excerpts. Where does your line fit in? What can you learn about the style of the orchestra you’re auditioning for? Who is their conductor and what can you glean about his or her approach? Every bit of knowledge will help you.

Most important play musically and try not to get discouraged if you don’t succeed initially. Winning depends on so many factors both internal and external. Whenever you play your best it’s a cause for celebration.

How Inspiration Strikes

By Georg Predota, Interlude

Composers tend to be a peculiar lot, particularly as it pertains to the best and most conducive circumstances in which they compose their best music. Of course, reports of that nature tend to be highly anecdotal, but more often then not, they do contain at least a kernel of truth.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven on a Walk by Berthold Genzmer

As the American painter, artist and photographer Chuck Close famously stated, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just show up and go to work.” Beethoven, for example, went for vigorous walks through the forests and hills surrounding Vienna after lunch. He always carried with him a pencil and a small pocket sketchbook, recording any musical ideas that would thus come to his mind.

Gustav Mahler

Mahler’s Komponierhäuschen

Gustav Mahler not only locked himself in various Komponierhäuschen (Composer’s cottages), he also took 3 to 4-hour walks after lunch, recording his musical impressions in a notebook.

Benjamin Britten

For Benjamin Britten, afternoon walks were “where I plan out what I’m going to write in the next period at my desk”.

Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss preferred to compose in his garden cottage until lunchtime, when it was time to head for the local restaurant.

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Solitary walking, however, was clearly not the only source of inspiration for great musical minds. Gluck, it was said, wrote best when he was sitting in the middle of a field.

Gioachino Rossini

Rossini was most productive when he had partaken of “a good flask of wine.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart at the Pooltable by Oswald Charles Barret

It is said that Mozart composed his best music while playing billiards

Giovanni Paisiello

Paisiello enjoyed composing while lying in bed.

Antonio Sacchini

A pretty woman by his side, and his pet cats playing around his feet was a prerequisite for Sacchini to write well.

Giuseppe Sarti

© inhabitat.com

Sarti preferred to sit in a dark gloom lighted only by a single candle.

Domenico Cimarosa

Cimarosa composed his best works surrounded by a dozen of gabbling friends, with light conversation inspiring his music.

Étienne Méhul

Mćhul, on the other hand, trying to get away from the noise and bustle of the city. Once, he went to the Chief of Police in Paris and asked to be imprisoned in the Bastille.

Richard Wagner

And let’s not forget Richard Wagner, who liked his silken undies and heavy perfume in order to be properly inspired. He also needed perfect quiet, and nobody was allowed entrance to his study—it is reported that even his meals were passed to him through a trap door. Believe it or not!

Who Got It Right and Who Got It Wrong? Critics and Composers

by Maureen Buja

We were looking at a book of musical quotations the other day and found some things that make one so glad to have a sense of perspective.

Here, John Gregory, writing in 1766 in his A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with Those of the Animal World, had this to say about what composer?

‘[The style of COMPOSER] sometimes pleases by its spirit and a wild luxuriancy … but possesses too little of the elegance and pathetic expression of music to remain long in the public taste.’

Hmmm. So we want a mid-18th century composer who had spirit and a sense of luxury but lacked elegance…. Mozart? Hummel? No, they’re too late. Gregory was referring to the style of the music of Haydn, who, of all composers of his era, has remained in the public taste where so many of his contemporaries have vanished.

Hardy: Joseph Haydn, 1791

We have two composers with two very different views of conductors. The first, a composer, suffered poor performances in the hands of bad conductors:

‘Conducting is a black art.’

The other, a conductor himself, downplayed the difficulties in a letter to his 10-year-old sister:

‘It’s easy. All you have to do is wiggle a stick.’

It was Tchaikovsky who held the first opinion, given in 1909, and Sir Thomas Beecham in the second quote.

Reutlinger: P.I. Tchaikovsky, c. 1888

Sir Thomas Beecham, 1948

Richard Strauss, on the other hand, felt that certain sections of the orchestra needed to be quelled at all times:

‘Never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight. If you can hear them at all, they are too loud.’

Igor Stravinsky , himself a composer and a conductor, saw danger in the field of conducting:

‘”Great” conductors, like “great” actors, soon become unable to play anything but themselves.’

and

‘Conducting is semaphoring, after all.’

Richard Strauss conducting

Stravinsky conducting

He also viewed conductors as the ‘lapdogs’ of musical life…which poses an interesting question of which side of Stravinsky was making that statement!

Very few composers or performers had anything good to say about critics.

Richard Wagner thought that ‘the immoral profession of musical criticism must be abolished,’ whereas Beecham saw the problem as one of lack of musical feeling, saying ‘…so often they have the score in their hands and not in their heads.’

Aaron Copland thought that ‘if a literary many puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong’.

And the critics strike back:

George Bernard Shaw, when accused of being too critical: ‘No doubt I was unjust; who am I that I should be just?’

Eduard Hanslick, who wielded great power as critic, took an uncritical view of himself: ‘When I wish to annihilate, then I do annihilate.’

Eduard Hanslick

Oscar Wilde found Chopin to be too emotional: ‘After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own.’

Sometimes composers are most caustic about their contemporaries. Wagner wondered this about the legacy of Rossini: ‘After Rossini dies, who will there be to promote his music?’

Stravinsky pondered about South American music: ‘Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don’t like, it’s always by Villa-Lobos?’

Some composers write about what they are proudest of. Modest Mussorgsky, known for his songs as much as his symphonic music and opera, said in a letter in 1868 ‘my music must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades’.

Puccini, understating his talents simply said ‘God touched me with His little finger and said “Write for the theatre, only for the theatre.”’

Giacomo Puccini

Rossini, never one to understate his skill, remarked ‘Give me a laundry-list and I’ll set it to music.’

Stravinsky, who was often so far ahead of his contemporaries musically as to be in another world, said ‘Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right.’

Elisabeth Luytens, who parlayed her contemporary sound into really effective music for British horror films, called her own style ‘eerie weirdness’.

Elizabeth Lutyens

Opinions, opinions … everyone has opinions. Some of them can make us ponder (‘Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour’ – Rossini), others make us laugh (‘Hell is full of musical amateurs’ – George Bernard Shaw), and others make us angry (‘There are two kinds of music: German music and bad music.’ – H.L. Mencken) – what’s your opinion?

When the Hero isn’t Quite Heroic

The Clueless Heroes in Classical Operas

by Maureen Buja, Interlude

Throughout most of the opera, there are certain tropes that repeat and repeat: the heroine will die of some wasting disease (La Bohéme, La Traviata, etc.), the hero will save the day (Die Zauberflöte), and so on. There are some operas, however, where it’s the idiot or the simpleton who saves the day.

Richard Strauss: Guntram

In Richard Strauss’ unsuccessful opera Guntram, our title character is a minstrel. He first dissuades duchess Freihild from drowning herself. He then goes to her husband, Duke Robert, a grasping tyrant, and sings a song to peace and generous rulers, which doesn’t go over very well, and then urges rebellion against the duke. The duke attacks our minstrel, who turns out to be a knight-minstrel and slays the duke. While imprisoned, Guntram realizes that, although he spoke of liberation, he was really acting out of love for Freihild. He decides that in atonement, he will spend the rest of his life in solitude, while gazing upon the benevolent reign of Freihild.

Guntram (Heinrich Zeller) and Freihild (Pauline de Ahna), 1894, Weimar

Richard Wagner: Siegfried

This is Strauss at his most Wagnerian, and the minstrel (perhaps standing in for the composer) was an unusual hero for an opera. However, if we look at Wagner, we have another idiot hero. Siegfried is a boy from the forest. Raised by Mime the dwarf, Siegfried despises his foster father and declares that he only stays until Mime tells him about his childhood. Mime tells him about Sieglinde and Siegmund and how Sieglinde died giving birth to Siegfried. Only Siegfried, the ‘one who knows no fear,’ can forge the great sword Nothung and after slicing Mime’s anvil in half, goes off to fight Fafner, the dragon left over from the first Ring opera.

Jay Hunter Morris as Siegfried (Metropolitan Opera)

Siegfried, raised only by Mime, is such an innocent that when he gets to his pre-destined role in this opera, rescuing Brünnhilde from the ring of fire her father has imprisoned her in, that he unwittingly utters the funniest line in the entire Ring cycle: “Das ist kein Mann!” (That is no man!), as he removes her armour. He’s one of the rare slices first, ask questions later opera heroes.

Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov

The opera Boris Godunov has a character called a ‘yuródivïy,’ i.e., a fool for Christ. These Holy Fools act intentionally foolish, to ‘conceal their perfection from the world.’ The yuródivïy appears in Act IV, chased by children and singing a nonsense song. As the Pretender readies himself for his march on Boris, the yuródivïy sings a song predicting the difficulties that the country will soon face (Flow, flow, bitter tears!).

Sam Furness as the Holy Fool in Boris Godunov, 2019 (The Royal Opera) (Photo by Clive Barda)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Zauberflöte

In Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, we have the unique character of Papageno. A bird-catcher by profession, he’s seemingly half-bird himself.

Emanuel Schikaneder, librettist of Die Zauberflöte, shown performing in the role of Papageno as shown in the first edition of the libretto

He’s not above lying to Tamino about how he killed the fearsome serpent, but when he’s pressed into service for our hero, he’s the first one to actually discover the kidnapped Pamina. Through the trial sequence, despite being told over and over to be silent, he can’t keep still. Banished from the test, he is saved by the appearance of his own half-bird woman, Papagena. We know that Tamino and Pamina will have a difficult intellectual life but that the two simpletons, Papagena and Papageno are only intending to have many, many, many children.

Papageno (Jonathan Michie) and Papagena (Hye-Jung Lee) and children (Florida Grand Opera)

Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff

We could also consider Verdi’s Falstaff as the idiot hero – used to a life of pleasure when he hung around with Prince Hal, he’s no longer the center stage when Hal becomes King Henry. His attempts to seduce women end with him being thrown in the river with the laundry and his forest appearance as the ghost of Herne the Hunter, complete with stag horns.

Robert Smirke: Fallstaff with his horns

Idiots and half-men, religious fanatics and social innocents – all have their place in the world of opera.

23 historic photographs of classical composers doing incredibly normal things

 By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

Iconic preserved moments of history’s most esteemed maestros, doing very normal stuff.

Photography is vital to our world. It gives us a deep connection to the past, preserving memories and moments of historic importance, and telling truths if ever sinister attempts are made to mask reality.

And as photography became increasingly widespread during the 19th century, classical composers began to enjoy their own moments under the flash-and-powder.

Now, from Gustav Mahler to Leonard Bernstein, we often hail these musicians’ art as so influential, so unrivalled, that we can forget they are just human beings like all the rest of us. Human beings, with really mundane hobbies outside of the recording studio.

Seeing is believing, as these great maestros show an interest in falconry, sledging and, well, swinging. Of the playground sort, mind you…

1. Claude Debussy having a nap (1900)

   

   Claude Debussy having a nap. Picture: adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images

2. Dmitri Shostakovich watching his favourite football team on a Sunday morning in Moscow (1942)

   

   Dmitri Shostakovich watching his favourite Spartak football team on a Sunday morning in Moscow. Picture: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

3. Dame Ethel Smyth waiting impatiently for women to have equal rights (1930)

   

   Composer and political activist Dame Ethel Smyth waiting impatiently for women to have equal rights. (1930). Picture: History collection 2016 / Alamy Stock Photo

4. Young Sergei Prokofiev playing an intense game of chess (date unknown)

   

   Young Sergei Prokofiev playing a highly competitive game of chess. Picture: Alamy

5. Richard Strauss in Schierke, Germany, sledging with noticeable discomfort (date unknown)

   

   Richard Strauss sledging in Schierke, Germany. Picture: Roger Viollet via Getty Images

6. John Williams dropping by to visit Luciano Pavarotti in his dressing room at the Grammy Awards (1999)

   

   John Williams and Luciano Pavarotti clasping hands at the Grammy Awards. (1999). Picture: Ron Wolfson/Online/Getty

7. Leonard Bernstein swinging barefoot outside his Fairfield, Connecticut home (1986)

   

   Composer Leonard Bernstein swings outside of his Fairfield, Connecticut home (1986). Picture: Joe McNally/Getty Images

8. German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen smoking a pipe during a recording session (1970)

   

   German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen smokes a pipe during a recording session. Picture: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

9. Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan enjoying a spot of falconry (1955)

   

   Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan enjoying a spot of falconry. (1955). Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

10. French composer and conductor Nadia Boulanger, exasperated during rehearsals (1976)

    

    French composer and conductor Nadia Boulanger, exasperated. (1976). Picture: Erich Auerbach/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

11. Opera legend Jessye Norman and film maestro John Williams share a moment (2012)

    

    Opera legend Jessye Norman and film maestro John Williams share a moment at Williams’ 80th Birthday Tribute (2012). Picture: Paul Marotta/Getty Images

12. Gustav Mahler enjoying some family time with wife Alma, and daughters Anna and Maria (1910)

    

    Gustav Mahler enjoying some family time with his wife Alma and daughters Anna and Maria. (1910). Picture: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy

13. Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi with his beloved dogs (1800s)

    

    Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi with his dogs. (1800s). Picture: Alamy

14. Composer Benjamin Britten and English tenor Peter Pears having a rather sombre picnic (1954)

    

    Artist and set designer John Piper, composer Benjamin Britten and English tenor Peter Pears having a break while in Venice for the premiere of Britten's opera 'The Turn Of The Screw'. (1954?). Picture: Erich Auerbach/Getty Images

15. Gustav and Alma Mahler taking a stroll nearby their summer residence in Toblach (1909)

    

    Austrian composer Gustav Mahler and his wife Alma take a stroll nearby their summer residence in Toblach. (1909). Picture: Imagno/Getty Images

16. Composer Sally Beamish at her home in Scotland, on a hammock, with a dog (2014)

    

    Sally Beamish on a hammock, with a dog. Picture: Alamy

17. Soviet composers Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian, just hanging out (date unknown)

    

    Soviet composers Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian just hanging out.. Picture: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

18. Composer John Philip Sousa among his four-legged “musical friends” (1922)

    

    US composer John Philip Sousa among his four-legged "musical friends". Picture: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images

19. Leonard Bernstein at lunch with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1946)

    

    Leonard Bernstein at lunch with fellow composer Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts. (1946). Picture: Erika Stone/Getty Images

20. Pioneering composer Amy Beach posing for a photo with four American female songwriters (1924)

    

    Pioneering composer Amy Beach with four American female song writers in April, 1924. Picture: Lebrecht Music & Arts / Alamy Stock Photo

21. Claude Debussy, flying a kite with Louis Laloy

    

    Claude Debussy flying a kite with Louis Laloy. Picture: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

22. Leonard Bernstein, sitting atop a tree in Israel (date unknown)

    

    Leonard Bernstein, up a tree in Israel. Picture: Wiki

23. George Gershwin photographed while painting a portrait of Arnold Schoenberg (1936)

    

    George Gershwin photographed while painting a portrait of Austrian composer Arnold Schonberg. Picture: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images