Did you ever meet Richard Strauss?
No, nor did I ever hear him conduct.
But one of his relatives, Herman Grab, was a very close friend of mine and, he often talked to me about Strauss.
I was surprised to learn, for instance, that whereas his music is very emotional, even romantic,
his manner and appearance were those of a well-to-do business man and he organized his time very precisely.
My friend told me that once at a party, when a lady asked Strauss where he got all his
wonderful ideas, he gave a very characteristic answer: "Well, I compose every day from 8 to 12 and from
2 to 6". But Grab told me that Strauss often composed for fourteen hours a day, also that he was so
well disciplined that when he was in rehearsal for an orchestral concert, he would often write a few bars
of an opera during a luncheon intermission.
Was Wagner his favorite composer?
Wagner, of course, and he always adored Mozart. But he was very much influenced by Brahms when he was a teenager.
His father was a great Brahms enthusiast and practically forebade Richard from
looking at a Wagner score. But Strauss developed incredibly fast. By the time he
wrote "Death and Transfiguration" and "Don Juan", when he was 25 years
old, his music was already much more advanced harmonically than anything the nineteenth century had known before.
What would you say about Salome?
When Salome came along in 1905, it
was truly avant-garde for the time. Strauss went along with Wagner's motif idea,
but in developing a whole opera from a few motifs, I think he goes much further than Wagner. Some parts of
Salome are almost like the "Liebestod" in Tristan und Isolde in that when they are played,
without the singer, you feel that nothing is missing. That's because the voice, although very important,
is really only commenting on what the music is saying. The singer's line is like a superimposed recitative
over the music. Strauss does this to a great extent in Salome.
Does Strauss deliberately cover up a voice with orchestration sometimes - in Salome perhaps?
I don't know. He said "my music should be played as lightly as Cosi fan tutte". Yet, when
a certain lyric soprano once complained that no "matter how loud she sang, she could not be heard over the
orchestra, Strauss said, "That is exactly what I want in this spot."
What did he think of his music?
He thought he was the greatest living composer, but he was very unhappy that his music wasn't understood.
In 1905 he was considered so modern and harmonically advanced, and most of his chords were so unfamiliar and
so daring, that people just could not take it. But he lived so long that by the time he died, at the age of
85, he was considered old-fashioned!
Was he conceited, or arrogant?
He was terribly self-centered but actually he was modest! My friend told me that when he said to Strauss one time,
"I really think that history will judge you as one of the greatest composers of all time".
Strauss answered "Yes, I think I'm one of the greatest second-class composers."
What would you say is Strauss's greatest contributions to music?
He made many contributions, but I think I would have to say it is his extremely rich and quite characteristic
orchestration. Nobody had such incredibly rich colors; nobody could imitate them. If you just turn the first
page of Salome, you see what looks like a simple C-sharp major chord, but if you open the score,
you see about thirty-six staves just for that one chord! He would make such chords by dividing each string section
into four, five, or maybe six parts and combine them together with muted trumpets, a celesta, harp and even a
harmonium, in this case, all for a pianissimo effect! It is actually one of his characteristics that a page
which looks very full may really not be terribly heavy at all.
Then there's his transformation of themes. Liszt and Wagner had started the idea, but didn't develop it as fully as
Strauss did. There are two striking motifs in Salome, for both Salome and for Jochanaan, for example,
which are combined in a most dramatic way in the long interlude which follows Jochanaan's curse on Salome.
When the anger of the music subsides, we hear for the first time, in the deep bassoons, the melodic
line of Salome's later demand: "I want his head on a silver platter". This is followed immediately by the
tones of the high-pitched clarinet in a quick and mocking version of the Jochanaan theme.
What about "The Dance of the Seven Veils"?
"The Dance of the Seven Veils" is merely a development of all the themes. There's Jochanaan's theme,
Salome's theme, a very violent waltz and, toward the end, as she finishes the dance, the music suddenly trails off
in what is actually Salome's motif, not in the original romantic color but in the same awful color heard at the
end of the opera when she kisses Jochanaan's head. This is a very good example of Strauss as such a good master
of counterpoint and transformation of themes that he could take such completely different themes, play with them,
change and combine them to fit dramatic situations.
How do you evaluate the opera Salome among Strauss's works?
Of his dramatic operas, it's my favorite. For the soprano, it's very demanding, of course, in every way,
for the opera lasts an hour and a half and she's on stage almost from the beginning to the very end.
But Salome is a masterpiece of orchestration, counterpoint, and characterization and it's especially
rich in contrasts. Perhaps some of the original excitement of Salome, occasioned by the fact that
Strauss had created some new effects orchestrally and rhythmically, has worn off, but what remains
is really great music.
Oskar Morawetz is a Czech-born Canadian composer whose works have been performed by leading symphony
orchestras on this continent and in Europe. In 1966 he won the Critic's Award, at the Third Annual Cava dei
Tirreni International Festival of Contemporary Music, for "Sinfonietta for
Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion"; in 1962 his Piano Concerto was awarded first prize, by Zubin Mehta,
in Canadian National Competition.
