It was he who by years of lessons and kindly counsel
made me a musician of the future (_Zukunftsmusiker_), and set my feet on
a road where now I can walk unaided and alone. It was he also who
initiated me in Schopenhauer's philosophy."
The second influence, that of the South, dates from April, 1886, and
seems to have left an indelible impression upon Strauss. He visited Rome
and Naples for the first time, and came back with a symphonic fantasia
called _Aus Italien_. In the spring of 1892, after a sharp attack of
pneumonia, he travelled for a year and a half in Greece, Egypt, and
Sicily. The tranquillity of these favoured countries filled him with
never-ending regret. The North has depressed him since then, "the
eternal grey of the North and its phantom shadows without a sun."[168]
When I saw him at Charlottenburg, one chilly April day, he told me with
a sigh that he could compose nothing in winter, and that he longed for
the warmth and light of Italy. His music is infected by that longing;
and it makes one feel how his spirit suffers in the gloom of Germany,
and ever yearns for the colours, the laughter, and the joy of the South.
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