Tracing the path of Richard Strauss
throughout Germany

1883 saw Strauss undertake a musical journey which included a sojourn in Dresden. 18 years later, Strauss was invited by Ernst von Schuch to stage Feuersnot (The Need for Fire) in Dresden. The opera was well-received, and subsequent works such as Salome, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) achieved even greater success. The friendship which developed between Strauss and Schuch was further enhanced by the former’s affection for Dresden’s Semper Opera House.

He referred to the opera house as “Dorado”, and it was here that nine of his fifteen operas were premiered. Strauss’s connection with Dresden continued even after the death of Schuch. He went on to be made President of the Reichsmusikkammer (State Music Institute) further to the seizure of power by the National Socialists, and only lost his post as a result of insisting that the Jewish librettist Stefan Zweig be named on the theatrical billing for the premiere of Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman) in Dresden in 1935.

Strauss moved to Berlin in 1898. A performance of Tristan and Isolde at the Court Opera saw him perform in public for the first time as First Royal Prussian Court Chapel Master. Strauss was Musical Director of the Berlin Court Opera from 1908 to 1910. Whilst in Berlin he was also committed to creating an environment in which artists are appreciated by society at large.

Strauss returned to Leipzig’s Gewandhaus concert hall on numerous occasions as both a conductor and composer. A week-long residency there in June 1926 saw him conduct numerous operas and a concert. A long tradition of Strauss seasons at the Gewandhaus goes all the way back to performances organized by Arthur Nikisch in 1920/1921.

Strauss held the role of Second Grand-Ducal Chapel Master in Weimar from 1889 to 1894. It was during his time here that he began conducting, participated in Bayreuth Festival and married Pauline de Ahna in 1894. Although Strauss himself saw his years in Weimar as unproductive, they are regarded as having greatly benefitted his musical skills.

Strauss owes no little of his fame to his involvement with Bayreuth Festival, where he conducted five performances of the Wagner opera Tannhaeuser in 1894. He was not born with this fondness for Richard Wagner — his father disliked Wagner’s work, and preferred Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn.