But he has a great
advantage over Mahler; he knows how to rest after his labours. Both
excitable and sleepy by nature, his highly-strung nerves are
counterbalanced by his indolence, and there is in the depths of him a
Bavarian love of luxury. I am quite sure that when his hours of intense
living are over, after he has spent an excessive amount of energy, he
has hours when he is only partially alive. One then sees his eyes with a
vague and sleepy look in them; and he is like old Rameau, who used to
walk about for hours as if he were an automaton, seeing nothing and
thinking of nothing.
At Strasburg Strauss conducted his _Sinfonia Domestica_, whose programme
seems boldly to defy reason, and even good taste. In the symphony he
pictures himself with his wife and his boy (_"Meiner lieben Frau und
unserm Jungen gewidmet"_). "I do not see," said Strauss, "why I should
not compose a symphony about myself; I find myself quite as interesting
as Napoleon or Alexander." Some people have replied that everybody else
might not share his interest. But I shall not use that argument; it is
quite possible for an artist of Strauss's worth to keep us entertained.
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