Death and Transfiguration (), Op. 24, is a tone poem for large 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 the composer's friend Alexander Ritter as an interpretation of Death and Transfiguration, after it was composed. 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".
Performance history
Strauss conducted the premiere on 21 June 1890 at the Eisenach Festival (on the same program with the premiere of his Burleske in D minor for piano and orchestra). He also conducted this work for his first appearance in England, at the Wagner Concert with the Philharmonic Society on 15 June 1897 at the Queen's Hall in London.
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".
Structure
There are four parts (with Ritter's poetic thoughts condensed):
- Largo (The sick man, near death)
- Allegro molto agitato (The battle between life and death offers no respite to the man)
- Meno mosso (The dying man's life passes before him)
- Moderato (The sought-after transfiguration)
A typical performance lasts about 25 minutes.
Instrumentation
The work is scored for a large orchestra of the following forces:
- woodwind: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon
- brass: 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in F and C, 3 trombones, tuba
- percussion: timpani, tam-tam
- strings: 2 harps, violins i, ii, violas, cellos, double basses.
Quoted
In one of Strauss's last compositions, "Im Abendrot" from the Four Last Songs, Strauss poignantly quotes the "transfiguration theme" from his tone poem of 60 years earlier, during and after the soprano's final line, "Ist dies etwa der Tod?" (Is this perhaps death?).
Just before his own death, he remarked that his music was absolutely correct; his feelings mirrored those of the artist depicted within; Strauss said to his daughter-in-law as he lay on his deathbed in 1949: "It's a funny thing, Alice, dying is just the way I composed it in Tod und Verklärung."
Discography
Conductor Orchestra Recorded Albert Coates London Symphony Orchestra 1928 Richard Strauss Staatskapelle Berlin 193? Richard Strauss Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra 1937 Victor de Sabata Berlin Philharmonic 1939 Willem Mengelberg Concertgebouw Orchestra 1942 Arturo Toscanini Philadelphia Orchestra 1942 Leopold Stokowski New York City Symphony Orchestra 1944 Richard Strauss Vienna Philharmonic 1944 Eugene Ormandy Philadelphia Orchestra 1945 Fritz Reiner Chicago Symphony Orchestra 1950 Arturo Toscanini NBC Symphony Orchestra 1952 Wilhelm Furtwängler Vienna Philharmonic 1953 Victor de Sabata Vienna Philharmonic 1953 Herbert von Karajan Philharmonia Orchestra 2/3 June 1953 Jascha Horenstein Bamberg Symphony 1954 William Steinberg Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra 1954 Karl Böhm Concertgebouw Orchestra 1955 Hans Knappertsbusch Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire 7/8 May 1956 Fritz Reiner Vienna Philharmonic 1956 Artur Rodziński Philharmonia Orchestra 1957 George Szell Cleveland Orchestra 1957 Antal Doráti Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra 1958 Eugene Ormandy Philadelphia Orchestra 1959 Herbert von Karajan Vienna Philharmonic 1960 Pierre Monteux San Francisco Symphony 23 Jan 1960 Otto Klemperer Philharmonia Orchestra 1961 Erich Leinsdorf Los Angeles Philharmonic 1961 Zdeněk Košler Prague Symphony Orchestra 1967 Jascha Horenstein London Symphony Orchestra 1970 Rudolf Kempe Staatskapelle Dresden 1970 Herbert von Karajan Berlin Philharmonic 1972 Eugene Ormandy Philadelphia Orchestra 1978 Lorin Maazel Cleveland Orchestra 1979 Antal Doráti Detroit Symphony Orchestra 1980 Klaus Tennstedt London Philharmonic Orchestra 1980? Claudio Abbado London Symphony Orchestra 1981 Bernard Haitink Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra 1981 Eduardo Mata Dallas Symphony Orchestra 1981 Kazuyoshi Akiyama Vancouver Symphony Orchestra 1982 Sergiu Celibidache SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra 1982 Herbert von Karajan Berlin Philharmonic 1982 Michael Gielen Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 1984 André Previn Vienna Philharmonic 1987 Giuseppe Sinopoli New York Philharmonic 1987 Christoph von Dohnányi Vienna Philharmonic 1989 Neeme Järvi Scottish National Orchestra 1989 Tolga Kashif Philharmonia Orchestra 1989 Zdeněk Košler Slovak Philharmonic 1989 Yondani Butt London Symphony Orchestra 1990 James Levine Metropolitan Opera Orchestra 1995 Lorin Maazel Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra 1995 Jesús López-Cobos Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 1997 Kurt Masur New York Philharmonic 1998 David Zinman Tonhalle Orchester Zürich 2001 Lorin Maazel New York Philharmonic 2005 Donald Runnicles Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 2006 Johannes Fritzsch The Queensland Orchestra 2008 Manfred Honeck Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra 2013 References
- Bryan Gilliam: "Richard Strauss", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed January 16, 2007), (subscription access)
- Newman, Ernest. "The Music of Death" The Musical Times, July 1, 1915, pp. 398–399.
- "Herr Richard Strauss" The Musical Times, February 1, 1903, p. 115.
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