Richard Strauss

This revealing biography examines the life and works of the influential German composer Richard Strauss (1864–1949), whose evocative tone poems and beautifully crafted operas have been somewhat tainted in the public’s imagination following claims that the composer was a Nazi sympathizer. Strauss’s compositions also courted controversy, in particular his setting of Oscar Wilde’s outrageous play Salome. In this book Tim Ashley delves beneath Strauss’s public persona, in order to further understand the truth behind the myths, and the ways in which the composer’s personality and private life influenced his often sublime music.