Richard Strauss - A Hero's Life | Semyon Bychkov | WDR Symphony Orchestra
Richard Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben", played by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of its then chief conductor Semyon Bychkov. Recorded on June 19, 2002 in the Cologne Philharmonie.
Richard Strauss - A Hero's Life op. 40
00:00:00 Der Held
00:04:16 Des Helden Widersacher
00:07:44 Des Helden Gefährtin
00:20:40 Des Helden Walstatt
00:28:03 Des Helden Friedenswerke
00:34:26 Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung
Historic recording from the WDR Klassik-Archiv.
WDR Symphony Orchestra
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
Hans Hadulla, director
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○ Introduction to the work
After his "Till Eulenspiegel", Richard Strauss was inspired by literary works on several other occasions: in 1896, he completed "Also sprach Zarathustra", probably the first tone poem based on a work of philosophy. With "Don Quixote" (1897), he again took on a figure from narrative world literature. Strauss then pursued a more general poetic idea: the idea of the hero - the free man, entangled in the struggles of existence, who must face hostility, bring his works into the world and complete himself. The work has clear autobiographical traits - evident in the second half, in which themes from other tone poems by Strauss can be heard. The "Heldenleben" is the tonal balance sheet of his own artistic destiny, which one of Strauss's admirers, the French writer Romain Rolland, compared with the imaginary hero of Beethoven's "Eroica": "The old, revolutionary traits have disappeared, and like the outer world, the hero's enemies [...] take up a great deal of space [...]. There is also a scourging contempt in 'Heldenleben', an evil laughter that we never find in Beethoven. Little goodness." The hero is revealed in the powerfully sweeping E flat major theme; in the counterpart "Des Helden Gefährtin", Strauss' wife Pauline Strauss-de Ahna is meant - in the form of the soulful solo violin, which joins the hero in a duet. However, the hero's adversaries appear like a caricature beforehand: know-it-all gentlemen critics with pointed, unattractive, "snarling" (according to the score) contributions that displace the hero's theme into the bass. The "flight from the world" becomes a spiritual exaltation - represented by a quotation from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra".
(Text: Oliver Buslau)