Richard Strauss enjoyed early success as both conductor and composer, in the second capacity influenced by the work of Wagner. He developed the symphonic or tone-poem to an unrivalled level of expressiveness and after 1900 achieved great success with a series of impressive operas, at first on a grand scale, but later tending to a more classical restraint. His relationship with the National Socialist government in Germany was at times ambiguous, a fact that protected him but led to post-war difficulties and self-imposed exile in Switzerland, from which he returned home to Bavaria only in the year of his death, 1949.
In the decade from 1886 Strauss tackled a series of symphonic poems, starting with the relatively light-hearted Aus Italien (From Italy) and going on to Don Juan, based on the poem by Lenau, the Shakespearian Macbeth, Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Till Eulenspiegel a study of a medieval prankster, Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) , based on Nietzsche, a series of fantastic variations on the theme of Don Quixote and Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life).
Concertos by Strauss include two for the French horn, an instrument with which he was familiar from his father's eminence as one of the leading players of his time. There is an early violin concerto, but it is rather the Oboe Concerto of 1945, revised in 1948, that has impressed audiences.
Vocal Music
In common with other German composers, Strauss added significantly to the body of German Lieder. Most moving of all, redolent with a kind of autumnal nostalgia that is highly characteristic, are the Vier letzte Lieder (The Four Last Songs).
