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Originally Posted by Qccowboy
I generally like Strauss... I have to admit I just didn't get into this piece. It was a bit too pompous and "official". I guess the Nazi guns pointed at his head while he composed it were an added distraction?
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I was not so impressed either the first time I listened to this piece, but the main Olympia theme became more and more interesting after several times of listening. Now I like it a lot and will purchase the full score and go through the details.
For those who are interested in documentaries, there is one very interesting with the famous conductor Sir Georg Solti. In the interview he describes his great admiration for Richard Strauss, on this dvd there is film footage with Solti and Strauss talking together and exchanging ideas. In one chapter of this dvd we see Richard conducting one of his operas at the high age of 85, it was the year 1949 when the master also died. He said to Solti "I will conduct, but I can't see anything and I can't hear anything either...!, so tell me where are the trumpets and the timpani?"
Those are rare historical moments to be enjoyed buying this dvd called "Maestro Solti".
Solti continues and describes how difficult it was for him to go back to Germany and start a career as conductor there considering that he was a jew, when he got invited by a german friend who wanted to give him a fresh start and chance as a conductor. "But I had to leave America, and I had no job and was getting depressed doing nothing!, so I went to the country of Wagner and Richard Strauss who I adored, even though I knew what a arrogant and terrible person Wagner had been, writing antisemitistic documents that slaughtered Mendelssohn, resulting in him not being performed at all when the Nazis took over".
Another wonderful episode is when Strauss sitting behing his huge piano in his home at Garmisch-Partenkirchen and playing parts from his opera "Der Rosenkavalier". The footage on this disc are fabulous and I recommend fans of Strauss to buy it.
So, back to "Olympische Hymne". Having heard many of Richard Strauss most famous music, so I found it interesting to show something that most people have not heard before, then I mean those who only have heard "Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra". I write the title in french for the Quebecians
Thanks for listening!
Fredrik.