Tod und Verklärung marks a turning point in Richard Strauss’s corpus of tone poems: Even before the November 1889 premiere of his previous work Don Juan, Strauss had finished his third work in this genre. He leads the listener with great clarity through the dying hour of a person who had pursued the highest ideals. The present Urtext edition evaluates for the first time all the corrections that Strauss made in the galley proofs of the work’s full score and parts, correlating these to the music text. The preface provides insight into the genesis and reception history, while the detailed Critical Report systematically documents all of the editorial decisions.
