Strauss

We decided to go hear an all Strauss concert, performed by the Munich Philharmonic, conducted by Gergiev as a last minute replacement.   Gergiev, who eats Wagner operas for breakfast, had flown in that morning from Europe, and would fly back the next morning.  And, despite the last minute change, there were protestors in front of Carnegie Hall, protesting Gergiev's support for Putin's treatment of gay Crimeans, or something like that.  (It's worth googling to find Gergiev's conducting schedule; for most of the later half of April, he is conducting 2 concerts a day, sometimes in different cities.  Don't know how he does it.)

I don't like the music of Richard Strauss; or more precisely, I don't really get it.  The performance of "Also Sprach Zarathustra", didn't do much for me.  The harmony doesn't really appeal to my ears (while Vera rhapsodized over the augmented chords), and I find his phrasing consistently muddled.  And philosophy in music is problematic for me as well; I don't get the narrative.   "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks", on the other hand, was a delight.  It really is the progenitor of all cartoon music, I think, with its rapid shifts of texture and mood, and virtuosic, kaleidoscopic orchestration.   Even the "tragic" moments have that air of cartoon tragedy, like when Wily Coyote is flattened and then starts up again.   Which makes me think of the other thing that happens when I listen to Strauss; I constantly hear the various tropes that film composers over the years have abused to no end.  I'm talking about you, John Williams.  Not Strauss's fault, though.