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In addition to being perhaps the most important composer of the first half of the twentieth century, Richard Strauss was a conductor of vast skill and reputation. In purely historical terms, he was the first composer of note -- and the only composer of his standing -- to leave behind his own recordings of virtually all of his major orchestral works. Additionally, we have recordings of Strauss conducting the music of Mozart and Wagner, which he approached with a love and enthusiasm greater than for his own works. Such was his reputation at the podium from the 1920's onward, that one leading critic remarked that if Strauss had never written a note of his own music, his conducting would still have placed him among the most important musicians of his generation. Strauss was born in Munich, the first child of the second marriage of Franz Joseph Strauss, who was regarded as the greatest French horn player in the world. Although he played--admirably by all accounts--in the premiere performa...