Richard Strauss: The Conquest of Conscience - Tapa dura

Richard Strauss's 85 years of life spanned a revolution in Germany - from 1864 when the nation did not exist to 1949. A nationalist but also a humanist, he believed in culture as moral exoneration' and chose to remain in Nazi Germany and serve the Third Reich. Matthew Boyden examines for the first time Strauss's behaviour under Nazism, and assesses the incongruity of a seemingly crude character and the unfailing beauty and articulation of his music. A product of his age, an astounding talent and a man adept at concealing himself, Strauss only properly revealed his nature during the last twenty years of his life, when the pressures became both unbearable and unavoidable. This is the first detailed study of that nature.

Matthew Boyden is a record producer and writer on music. He has been editor of the classical record magazine CD Review and is the author of the Rough Guide to Opera. He has broadcast on Radio 3, Talk Radio, the World Service and Channel Four and is a trustee of the John Ogdon Foundation. He lives in a Wesleyan Chapel in Cornwall.