Richard Strauss,in my opinion,was a genius.His music is not for everybody,but what I like is his brilliance with orchestration.He could make musical instruments talk and tell story's through the notes on manuscript paper.I witnessed a live performance of his"Alpine Symphony" in Detroit in 1996-the music and the performance was awe-inspiring!The piece depicted a man clinbing a mountain through various cimatic conditions.One could actually feel what the man was going through from the sounds of the instruments.To paint a picture in sound-to me is incredible!Some people are gifted like Richard Strauss.And the end result is sharing that gift with listeners. To me Richard Strauss was a man of great determination.Let us hope more and more people become exposed to his music. His music is dramatic.I,for one like that style!Zoned.