Richard Strauss Quotes

#1. He'd be better off shoveling snow.

Richard Strauss

#2. Don't perspire while conducting - only the audience should get warm.

Richard Strauss

#3. Never look at the brass - it only encourages them.

Richard Strauss

#4. Must one become seventy years old to recognize that one's greatest strength lies in creating musical kitsch?

Richard Strauss

#5. Never look encouragingly at the brass, except with a brief glance to give an important cue.

Richard Strauss

#6. The aria, after all, is the soul of opera.

Richard Strauss

#7. The most perfect melodic shapes are found in Mozart; he has the lightness of touch which is the true objective ... Listen to the remarkable expansion of a Mozart melody, to Cherubino's 'Voi che sapete', for instance. You think it is coming to an end, but it goes farther, even farther.

Richard Strauss

#8. Never look at the trombones. You'll only encourage them.

Richard Strauss

#9. I shall never be converted, and I shall remain true to my old religion of the classics until my life's end.

Richard Strauss

#10. Ideas, like young wine, should be put in storage and taken up again only after they have been allowed to ferment and to ripen.

Richard Strauss

#11. On conducting: If you can just barely hear the French horns on stage, the balance is perfect.

Richard Strauss

#12. Never look at the trombones, you'll just encourage them.

Richard Strauss

#13. If you think that the brass is not blowing loud enough, mute it by a couple of degrees.

Richard Strauss

#14. Bear in mind that you are not making music for your own pleasure, but for the pleasure of your audience.

Richard Strauss

#15. I want to be able to depict in music a glass of beer so accurately that every listener can tell whether it is a Pilsner or a Kulmbacher.

Richard Strauss

#16. Never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight; if you can hear them at all, they are too loud.

Richard Strauss

#17. I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.

Richard Strauss

#18. The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play.

Richard Strauss