Richard Strauss was not yet 25 when he
confronted death in musical terms. However,
Death and Transfiguration was not
created, as often supposed, as a more or less
autobiographical report following a severe illness,
but as a pictorial attempt at portraying the final
moments of human existence in music. In From
Italy, the just twenty-year-old Strauss reflects on
a trip to Italy in which he experienced at first hand
the beauties of nature and the Roman ruins. Both
works are now brought together as Part 5 of the
Strauss cycle with Sebastian Weigle on a CD released
by OehmsClassics.
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