Sonata for flute and piano (Op 18)

Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) was one of the most prominent  German composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, representing the German Romanticism which emerged with Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.
Born in Munich, in a family of prominent French horn player (his father was a principal horn at the Munich Court Orchestra), young Richard early devoted himself to music. By the age of 18 when he left school he already composed more than 140 works, gaining attention of prominent conductor Hans von Bülow, close friend of his father. In 1984, after successful conducting debut, he was offered an assistant conductor position at Meiningen by Bülow.
During the following years he gradually moved throughout positions of musical director in various orchestras (Munich Opera, Weimart Court Orchestra, Royal Court orchestra in Berlin) until in 1919 he agreed to become a musical co-director (with Franz Schalk) of the Vienna State Opera. Additionally to successful conducting career, he had even more successful career as a composer.
Among his most notable compositions are symphonic poems “Don Juan”, “Don Quixote”, “Ein Heldenleben” (A Hero’s Life) and operas: “Elektra”, “Der Rosenkavalier”, “Ariadne auf Naxos” etc. By the middle of 1920s, when postwar notion that Romantic composers were “old-fashioned”, Strauss resigned from the Vienna State Opera dedicated his energy mostly to composing. In 1930s along with rise of National Socialists he led  Germany’s state music bureau but soon proved to be unacceptable by authorities because of his collaboration with Jewish librettist Stefan Zweig. The World War II and his last years he spent in Vienna and Switzerland. He returned to his Garmisch house in Bavaria shortly before his 85th birthday and his final days. His last composition “Four Last Songs” was written in 1948, during time when his name was cleared during denazification process.