With Strauss everything is full of life and sinew, and there is
nothing wasted. Possibly the first setting-out of his themes has rather
too schematic a character; and perhaps the melodic utterance is rather
restricted and not very lofty; but it is very personal, and one finds it
impossible to disassociate his personality from these vigorous themes
that burn with youthful ardour, and cut the air like arrows, and twist
themselves in freakish arabesques. In the adagio depicting night, there
is, though in very bad taste, much seriousness and reverie and stirring
emotion. The fugue at the end is of astonishing sprightliness; and is a
mixture of colossal jesting and heroic pastoral poetry worthy of
Beethoven, whose style it recalls in the breadth of its development. The
final apotheosis is filled with life; its joy makes the heart beat. The
most extravagant harmonic effects and the most abominable discords are
softened and almost disappear in the wonderful combination of _timbres_.
It is the work of a strong and sensual artist, the true heir of the
Wagner of the _Meistersinger_.
* * * * *
Upon the whole, these works make one see that, in spite of their
apparent audacity, Strauss and Mahler are beginning to make a
surreptitious retreat from their early standpoint, and are abandoning
the symphony with a programme.
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