Death and Transfiguration: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:21, 7 January 2024

Latest revision as of 14:59, 20 December 2024

(3 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)

Line 3:

[[File:Der junge Richard Strauss.JPG|thumb|Richard Strauss in 1888]]

'''''Death and Transfiguration''''' ({{lang-langx|de|'''Tod und Verklärung'''|link=no}}), [[Opus number|Op.]] 24, is a [[tone poem]] for orchestra by [[Richard Strauss]]. Strauss began composition in the late summer of 1888 and completed the work on 18 November 1889. The work is dedicated to the composer's friend Friedrich Rosch.

The music depicts the death of an artist. At Strauss's request, this was described in a poem by his friend [[Alexander Ritter]] as an interpretation of Death and Transfiguration, after it was composed.<ref>Bryan Gilliam: "Richard Strauss", ''[[Grove Music Online]]'', ed. L. Macy (Accessed January 16, 2007), (subscription access)</ref> As the man lies dying, thoughts of his life pass through his head: his childhood innocence, the struggles of his manhood, the attainment of his worldly goals; and at the end, he receives the longed-for transfiguration "from the infinite reaches of heaven".

Line 11:

==Critical reaction==

English music critic [[Ernest Newman]] described this as music to which one would not want to die or awaken. "It is too spectacular, too brilliantly lit, too full of pageantry of a crowd; whereas this is a journey one must make very quietly, and alone"."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Newman |first1=Ernest |title=The Music of Death |journal=The Musical Times |date=1915 |volume=56 |page=399 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8yAlAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA399 |access-date=2 February 2022 |publisher=Novello |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|399}}

French critic [[Romain Rolland]] in his ''Musiciens d'aujourd'hui'' (1908) called the piece "one of the most moving works of Strauss, and that which is constructed with the noblest utility".<ref>Quoted in Mason, Daniel Gregory (1918), ''Contemporary Composers'', p. 84.</ref>

Line 159:

| [[Fritz Reiner]]

| Vienna Philharmonic

| 4/6 Sep 1956

|-

| [[Artur Rodziński]]

Line 211:

| [[Herbert von Karajan]]

| Berlin Philharmonic

| 1972<ref>[http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=1445 Strauss: ''Four Last Songs'', etc] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917013759/http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=1445 |date=2016-09-17 }}, arkivmusic.com</ref>

|-

| [[Eugene Ormandy]]