Fritz Reiner - Chicago Symphony - Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

Gold Note Records

Also sprach Zarathustra, with the subtitle "Freely composed after Friedrich Nietzche", was written and first performed in 1896.At once there arose a protest that Strauss was trying to set Nietzsche`s philosopy to music; however, this was not the composer`s intention, and shortly after the premiere he explained his approach in a letter: " I did not intend to write philosophical music, or to portray in music Nietzsche`s great work. I meant to convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of its evolution, relogious and scientific, up to Nietzsche`s idea of the superman.The whole symphonic poem is intended as my homage to the genius of Nietzsche, which found its greatest exemplification in his book, Thus Spake Zarathustra." Perhaps the last sentence of the quotarion comes nearest to the mark. The music pays tribute to the great German philosopher by adopting, as the basis for certain more or less illustrative musical developments, passages from his philosophical poem of the same name.