During his youth, after hearing Siegfried he wrote to a friend about the music of Mime: “It would have killed a cat and the horror of musical dissonances would melt rocks into omelettes.”
When he met von Bülow, the old master thought little of his talents, but the young man gave him a surprise. For, when Richard went to Meiningen he had never led an orchestra in his life and without one rehearsal, conducted his Serenade for Strings, opus 7. Von Bülow realized his great ability, made him assistant conductor, and a year later when he left Meiningen, Strauss took his place.
It was about now that Richard met Alexander Ritter the violinist and radical thinker who, he said, changed his life by introducing to him new ideas. He became converted to Wagner. When he heard Tristan and Isolde he was thrilled by it. So, like Proteus, the god who changed his form to suit his adventure, Strauss, the musical Proteus changed his ideas to suit his opinions.
Wearied by hard work after writing many classical pieces including a sonata, an overture, the Festmarsch, a violin concerto, songs, a horn concerto and other things, he became very ill. He said to a friend that he was ready to die, and then added, “No, before I do, I should love to conduct Tristan.” This shows that the young man could change his opinion and become devoted to what he loathed years before, a fine quality which continually brought down upon his head criticism from smaller folk. Yet this Proteus-like quality was a sign of his power for growth.
Because he did not gain strength quickly from his illness, he went to Italy and then wrote his first symphonic poem Aus Italien (From Italy) in a new and modern vein.
When he returned, he led the orchestra in the Court Theatre of Munich and then went to Weimar for two years, and this former young classicist was now hailed as the leader of modern composers! He produced, here, three tone poems: Macbeth, Don Juan and Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) (1888–1890).
Then, on account of illness (1892) he went to Greece, Egypt and Sicily. During this tour, he wrote Guntram, which he produced on his return to Weimar.
He became interested in the Bayreuth festivals and in 1894 he conducted a production of Tannhäuser, after which he married Pauline de Ana who played Elizabeth. Before this, he had made her the heroine of his first opera, Guntram (1893).
Not long after this he gave up the Weimar post and went to Munich with his bride. He became the conductor there and at the same time, led the Berlin Philharmonic concerts until the double work and commuting became too much for him. He gave up Berlin and Arthur Nikisch succeeded him,—the same Arthur Nikisch who later took the baton of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in America.
In 1899 he became the leader of the Royal Opera in Berlin in which city he decided to live and from there made trips all over the world including the United States, first in 1904 and later, after the World War. During his last tour, we heard him play the piano for his songs which are unsurpassed in beauty, and conduct some of his own orchestral works with skill and enthusiasm.