Richard Strauss Quotes

30 Sourced Quotes

Never look at the Trombones, you'll only encourage them.

Richard Strauss
Producers of opera nowadays usually make the mistake of translating each particular orchestral phrase into terms of a movement on the stage. In this matter one should proceed with a maximum of caution and good taste. There is no objection to bringing life to into the production by changes of position and new nuances of acting during repetitive passages of music, especially in arias. Preludes of one or two bars frequently, and especially in Mozart, clearly express some gesture on stage. But each trill on the flute does not represent a wink on the prima donna, nor every delayed chord on the strings a step or gesture. Whole passages, especially in the finales, are pure concert music and are best left undisturbed by play acting.

Richard Strauss
Must one become seventy years old to recognize that one's greatest strength lies in creating musical kitsch?

Richard Strauss
Remember you are making music not to amuse yourself but to delight the audience.

Richard Strauss
When during my stay in Egypt I became familiar with the works of Nietzsche, whose polemic against christianity was particularly to my liking, the antipathy which I had always felt against a religion which relieves the faithful of responsibility for their actions (by means of confession) was confirmed and strengthened.

Richard Strauss
In my opinion, Gustav Mahler's work is one of the most important and interesting products in the history of modern creative arts.

Richard Strauss
Of all god-gifted dispensers of joy, Johann Strauss is to me the most endearing. I willingly admit to having sometimes conducted the Perpetuum Mobile with far more pleasure than many a four movement symphony.

Richard Strauss
Conducting is, after all, a difficult business – one has to be seventy years of age to realise this fully!

Richard Strauss
Very fine, but why do you put so many wrong notes in? Basically, it is all built on simple triads.

Richard Strauss
The left hand has nothing to do with conducting. Its proper place is the waistcoat pocket from which it should only emerge to restrain or make some minor gesture for which in any case a scarcely perceptible glance should suffice.

Richard Strauss
But never let the horns and woodwind out of your sight: if you can hear them at all they are still too strong.

Richard Strauss
Never look encouragingly at the brass, except with a short glance to give an important cue.

Richard Strauss
When you think you have reached the limits of prestíssimo, go twice as fast. (1948 Today, I should like to amend this as follows: Go twice as slowly - addressed to conductors of Mozart).

Richard Strauss
It is clear to me that the German nation will achieve new creative energy only by liberating itself from Christianity...

Richard Strauss
As for the Rosenkavalier waltzes...how could I have done those without a thought of the laughing genius of Vienna?

Richard Strauss
Always accompany a singer in such a way that he can sing without effort.

Richard Strauss
I am convinced that the decisive factor in dramatic effect will be a smaller orchestra, which does not drown out the human voice as does a large orchestra…The orchestra of the opera of the future is the chamber orchestra which, by painting in the background of the action on the stage with crystalline clearness, can alone realize precisely the intention of the composer with regard to the vocal parts. It is after all an important desideratum that the audience should not only hear the sounds but should also be able to follow the words closely.

Richard Strauss
Mozart's melodies, Beethoven's symphonies, Schubert's songs, acts two and three of Tristan are symbols in which are revealed the most profound spiritual truths. They are not "invented", but are "given in their dreams"to those privileged to receive them. Whence they come no one knows, not even their creator, the unconscious mouthpiece of the demiurge.

Richard Strauss
I hope, most revered Maestro, that these metronome markings, in my opinion wholly unneeded by you, are specific enough. Where they do not fit with your conception, I implore you urgently just to ignore them.

Richard Strauss
If you follow these rules carefully you will, with your fine gifts and great accomplishments, always be the darling of your listeners.

Richard Strauss
Man (in B major) asks: When? When? Nature, (in C Major) answers from the depths Never, never, never will the weather improve".

Richard Strauss
If my works are good and of any importance for the further development of our art, they will maintain their position in spite of all opposition on the part of critics, and in spite of all denigration of my artistic intentions. If they are worthtless, not even the most gratifying box office success or the most enthusiastic acclamation of augurs will keep them alive. Let the pulping press devour them... I shall not shed a tear over their grave.
On composing and conducting (page 39-40) (1929).

Richard Strauss
It is better to conduct with the ear instead of with the arm: the rest follows automatically.
Ten Golden Rules (for the album of a young conductor). page38. Originally published 1922.

Richard Strauss
You should not perspire when conducting: only the audience should get warm.

Richard Strauss
It is not enough that you yourself can hear every word the soloist sings - you know it off by heart anyway: the audience must be able to follow without effort. If they do not understand the words they will go to sleep.

Richard Strauss
Melody as revealed in the greatest works of our classics is one of the most noble gifts which an invisible deity has bestowed on mankind.

Richard Strauss
If you think that the brass is not blowing hard enough, tone it down another shade or two.

Richard Strauss
The melodic idea which suddenly falls upon me out of the blue appears in the imagination immediately, unconsciously, uninfluenced by reason. It is the greatest gift of the divinity and cannot be compared with anything else.

Richard Strauss
Why don't people see what is new in my work, how in them, as is found only in Beethoven, the human being visibly plays a part in the work...

Richard Strauss
Conduct 'Salome' and 'Elektra' as if they were by Mendelssohn: fairy music.

Richard Strauss