Thread: Favorite Strauss Tone Poem

According to wiki:

The tone poems of Richard Strauss are noted as the high point of program music in the latter part of the 19th century, extending its boundaries and taking the concept of realism in music to an unprecedented level. In these works, he widened the expressive range of music while depicting subjects many times thought unsuitable for musical depiction. As Hugh MacDonald points out in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "In the years prior to World War I these works were held to be in the vanguard of modernism."

Strauss's tone poems are the reasons that make him one of my favorite composers. The Eine Alpensinfonie is not only my favorite tone poem but one of, if not, my favorite pieces of all-time. So, I would like to know which one is your favorite. Please, vote!

I voted for Tod und Verklärung, but Ein Heldenleben and Eine Alpensinfonie are certainly not far behind for me...it was hard to pick lol.

I love them all but I gotta go with the Alpensinfonie. But why haven't you listed Metamorphosen? It's up there with his best.

None of them, to be honest. Don Quixote, maybe, as it has the string players, so kind of a concerto. But generally I don't gel with his tone poems.

Originally Posted by Xaltotun

...But why haven't you listed Metamorphosen? It's up there with his best.

It's different, more of a chamber work, and more of a reflection on real lived events - World War 2 - and not on literary things. Strauss let his usually rock solid mask slip with that one, and hooray to that. It's strongly autobiographical. I've heard it live 3 times, one of my favourite works for string orch.

Probably a toss-up between Alpensinfonie (incredibly evocative and atmospheric) and Don Quixote (I love what Strauss does with the 'theme and variations' form here).

Symphonia Domestica is the one work in this category that pretty much leaves me cold - nothing against Strauss being happy and successful but there's a whiff of self-satisfaction/tweeness behind the premise which I can't relate to at all.

I had to vote for Don Juan because of the three Strauss tone poems I have heard in life performances, it was the most rewarding for me. I've heard quite a few more in recordings, but Strauss is one composer I can appreciate in a live performance so much more.

Metamorphosen by far. That not being an option, Don Juan.

Also Sprach Zarathustra is unique. If you don't hear it live, or from good low-frequency-producing speakers, the setup is lost and getting connected is difficult. I listen to it seldom, but I do connect.

Yes, it puts me in 'outer space', and yes, there is a 'presence' there. Some of us geezers are long-time SF buffs, which tends to make us spacey.

Don Quixote for me. The writing is exquisite, but it also has a hardened edge to it that I don't get from the others. Plus the double-tongue muted brass, and the windmill sequence is extraordinary. And it's just more substantial of a work.

I like them all - hard to pick just one...

Zarathustra is a tad over-recorded IMHO, and I find there are few Alpine Symphony recordings that stand out as "the best".

As far as the conductirs go, in order, Bohn, Kempe and Karajan.

Originally Posted by Sid James

Generally I don't gel with his tone poems.

I have that same problem. My biggest block is, I can't always tell exactly what he's depicting, so I have to bury my head in the liner notes and hope I'm keeping up. It bugs me when I get lost.

Metamorphosen isn't a tone poem, but I agree; it's my favorite of his.

It was not an easy choice but I finally picked Eine Alpensinfonie over Don Quixote and Ein Heldenleben. Macbeth I do not know,. must look into it. It is an interesting quirk of fate that the last recording of both Sir Thomas Beecham and Sir John Barbirolli was Ein Heldenleben..

It's different, more of a chamber work, and more of a reflection on real lived events - World War 2 - and not on literary things. Strauss let his usually rock solid mask slip with that one, and hooray to that. It's strongly autobiographical. I've heard it live 3 times, one of my favourite works for string orch.

Personally I couldn't care less if a work is autobiographical or not. Ultimately the majority of all art of any real merit is about something beyond the artist's personal lives. Of course artists cannot help but put something of themselves into their work... but seriously there are far more interesting things to make art about than an artist's biography.

I'm glad that Shakespeare never let the mask slip.

By the way... I went with the Alpine Symphony... but ultimately I don't even look to the tone poems as his most important works. I am far more enamored of the songs and the operas.

Originally Posted by Manxfeeder

I have that same problem. My biggest block is, I can't always tell exactly what he's depicting, so I have to bury my head in the liner notes and hope I'm keeping up. It bugs me when I get lost.

...

I think that generally the late Romantic composers tendency for bigness does not go down well with me. I call it music on steroids. But I get what you mean. R. Strauss' tone poems are very dense works, both musically and in terms of meaning (eg. the narrative, as you say). I do like other composers' tone poems though, at least to more extent than R. Strauss' ones, eg. Liszt, Bax, and other programmatic orchestral works, eg. by Tchaikovsky.

I wonder if the Alpine Symphony had been played as much if he had kept the planned Nietzschean title 'The Anti-Christ'.