cover image Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss, Tim Ashley. Phaidon Press, $14.95 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-7148-3794-9

Recent scholarly writing on Richard Strauss--who remains among the most popular of 20th-century composers, if not necessarily the most critically respected--has debated two issues: his dubious relation with the Nazi party and the break in his style, around 1910, from modernist experimentation to a conservative, nostalgic mode. Among the strengths of Ashley's biography is that he absorbs the latest scholarship into his concise, linear narrative and incorporates abundant anecdotes and revealing quotations. Ashley is evenhanded on the political question, wisely rejecting Strauss's declaration, ""I am an apolitical composer."" Strauss's anti-Semitic outbursts are revisited and, ultimately, a Strauss emerges who, while not an enthusiastic collaborator, passively acquiesced to the Nazis. Ashley thoroughly covers Strauss's compositions, as well, devoting thoughtful comments to forgotten as well as familiar works (though the composer's songs deserve more attention than they receive). Particularly interesting are Ashley's comparison of the two versions of the opera Ariadne auf Naxos (he makes the unfamiliar first version seem far more intriguing) and his argument that Friedenstag, usually seen as a pacifist opera, is in fact complicit with fascist ideology. Ashley risks glibness, however, in his judgments--often merely stated instead of argued--of the success or failure of various works. As an introduction for readers interested in Strauss the man, his works and his times, Ashley's book will serve admirably. Illus. (May)