Strauss's ‘Intermezzo’

Extract

Of Strauss's three large-scale autobiographical works, Intermezzo is surely the sincerest and the best. It avoids the grandiosity of Ein Heldenleben and the coyness of parts of the Sinfonia Domestica, and approaches bathos only in the final duet of reconciliation between the composer and his wife. For the rest, the story and music give an unvarnished account of the Strausses' menage, and in particular of one incident, taken from life, when Mrs. Strauss wrongly suspected her husband of infidelity after opening an incriminating letter from a Berlin demi-mondaine that was intended for another conductor with a similar name.