Not exactly a Strauss biography, but for those of us more interested in Mahler, here is a fine compendium of the exchange of correspondence between Strauss and Mahler: Herta Blaukopf's "Gustav Mahler--Richard Strauss: Correspondence 1888-1911."
For me it was an insight into how Strauss failed to fully appreciate Mahler's uniqueness.
Here's my review of it from Amazon:
Herta Blaukopf presents here the story of one of the oddest "couples" in music history: Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.
Through her own commentary, using nearly all the known letters exchanged between Mahler and Strauss, Blaukopf helps readers come to a better understanding of what kept these two giants of music together--and what kept them apart.
Over a major span of their productive years, they maintained a correspondence, and frequently got together with friends and family, discussing music and how to further each other's careers. Yet these two titans never seemed to really understand each other.
Strauss, the genius of tone poems and sound painting, seemed never to run out of new ideas of music that would "sell." Strauss wrote because he COULD! (and he could make a lot of money at it!)
Mahler had a boundless reservoir of passion for Nature, and a depth of desire to understand the causes and reasons for human suffering. Mahler wrote, because he HAD TO! He was puzzled by those who could not understand the depth of suffering in his music.
After just such a moment of bewilderment, Mahler asks himself, "Are people made of different stuff than I?" Upon reading this, Strauss answers Mahler's heart-wrenching question, with a single word: "Yes."
Many good books have been written about Mahler and Strauss. This one lets you read their own thoughts in their own words, and it also includes the words of their family and associates to let readers judge for themselves.
Topic: The best Richard Strauss biography?? (Read 8406 times)