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In a special edition of Music Matters marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Richard Strauss, Tom Service travels to Garmish-Partenkirchen, near Munich, where Strauss made his home for more than forty years, and where he wrote many of his most important works, including Elektra.ÌýAs a festival celebrating Strauss begins, Tom is shown around Villa Strauss, the composer's former home, by Strauss's grandson, Christian, now in his eighties. An impressive residence in the heart of the Bavarian Alps, it was here that Strauss composed many of his greatest works, including An Alpine Symphony, Metamorphosen, the Four Last songs, Der Rosenkavalier, Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos, Intermezzo, Daphne, and his last stage work, Capriccio. The great mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender talks about what the composer means to her and we eavesdrop on the tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Julius Drake as they rehearse one of Strauss’s lesser-known groups of songs – Bostridge’s first real encounter with Strauss lieder.Ìý At the Richard Strauss Insitute in Garmisch, Dr Christian Wolf and Tom explore a relatively unknown area of the composer’s output – the piano music – and Dr Jurgen May talks us through Strauss’s complex relationship with politics, starting with his appointment as Kapellmeister to Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1898, and finishing with his contentious – and much debated – relationship with the Nazi regime.

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