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	Richard Strauss : Man, Musician, Enigma by Michael Kennedy UK List Price: £25.00 US List Price: $34.95 Our Price: £19.77 You Save: £5.23 (20%) Hardcover - 468 pages (March 1999) Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 0521581737 Book Description Written by the distinguished music critic for the Sunday Telegraph, this is the first large-scale biography of Richard Strauss to be written for many years. The book re-evaluates a figure whom the author considers to be the greatest composer of the twentieth century. Kennedy deals fully with Strauss's life as leading composer and national figure in the Third Reich, during which he was both feted and cold-shouldered by the authorities. In putting this period into perspective he draws heavily on hitherto ignored material, including Strauss's own letters and diaries. In addition he reveals much about Strauss's long, happy but tempestuous marriage to the soprano Pauline de Ahna as well as tracing the important relationships to his librettists Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Stefan Zweig, Joseph Gregor and Clemens Krauss. Kennedy re-assesses the man and the music, revealing a picture of a level-headed, practical and extremely versatile musician - a great conductor as well as a great composer. Synopsis This biography of Richard Strauss re-evaluates a figure whom the author considers to be the greatest composer of the 20th century. Michael Kennedy deals fully with Strauss's life as leading composer and national figure in the Third Reich, during which he was both feted and cold-shouldered by the authorities. Customer Comments rjstove@codexmag.com.au (R J Stove) from Sydney, Australia , 18 May, 1999. Admirable, craftsmanlike vindication of Strauss' achievement. It's appropriate that this admirable volume should have appeared now, with the 50th anniversary of Richard Strauss’ death occurring on September 8, and with (by bizarre coincidence) the demise last March of Stanley Kubrick, whose use of Strauss’ Thus Spake Zarathustra in the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey introduced the German master’s genius to millions who would no more have visited a concert hall than flown to the moon. Compact discs’ effectiveness not only at widening the available repertoire but at conveying even the most elaborate instances of Strauss’ orchestral filigree -- as no earlier recording medium could consistently do -- has itself done Strauss’ standing a favour. But few earlier books on Strauss are recent enough or comprehensive enough to make sense amid the CD revolution. Fortunately Michael Kennedy's clear-headed, unfailingly craftsmanlike account is. It also provides some much-needed balance to often peevish and ill-informed accusations that Strauss was a stooge of the Third Reich. Strauss, whose tongue seldom emerged from his cheek, called himself in 1947 “a first-rate second-rate composer”; but Kennedy’s verdict that Strauss ranks as high as any composer the 20th century has seen is not only more generous but probably more accurate. The Strauss expert will relish this book; the newcomer to Strauss can be assured that no better book on the topic exists.
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