A Life for Music

In 1949, shortly before Richard Strauss's death, a film crew arrived at the Villa Strauss in Garmisch. They were there to make a short documentary called Ein Leben für Musik. During the filming, Strauss was asked by the team to play something from his output at the piano. He could have whisked off one of the Rosenkavalier waltzes, one of the interludes from the Four Last Songs or even one of his unknown piano works. But no, the 85-year-old Strauss chose to play some of the transformation music from the near end of his opera Daphne.

If we're to take Strauss at his word, it is one of his rarities that we should be listening to in this year celebrating his 150th birthday. On his blog, the writer, musicologist and all-round Straussian Hugo Shirley rightly notes that these works are, well, rare in the schedule this year. Unlike the Britten 100 – and to some extent the Wagner and Verdi 200 – it looks like we're not going to be treated to the undiscovered Strauss.

You can check out the listings on Hugo's blog or via the Operabase Strauss page, but you'll search in vane for Intermezzo, Die ägyptische Helena, Friedenstag or Capriccio. Perhaps the 14/15 season will throw up a few of these, plus more widespread performances of Feuersnot, Guntram, Die schweigsame Frau or Die Liebe der Danae, but for the moment, the Strauss celebrations are proving rather predictable.

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