The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-15
INTEF
From the Pictorial RevfeW-I


 ard Strauss in the cf eil ana
 ! the opera house. B9 Ks very little about him in his k e, anu this for the simple reas{ uss does not allow it to extel ance to that point. The cc ss' oa- lcme" and "Elektra' doe3 [2 'o elude interviewers. But last one interviewer succeeded-the !| com poser and pianist, Ward 4 f.1 .1'l 1l q '. Stephens is an admirer or lz T no he believes that 10 or 20 ;5 oi' now will find the composers wofH accept ed by the world even as Wagner's.
 When MT. Stephens reached Garmisch' a picturesque Bayarian village, he got into communication with Strauss, who made an appointment for the interview, and the story follows:
 Doctor Strauss house Is to all appear Ances the end of the town. His house was A. surprise to me; the change In architecture was startling. I had been walking through streets with little two- storied houses, graceful balconies and pie turesoue overhanging roofs, and enjoyed a decidedly foreign atmosphere, when T suddenly was confronted with house, grounds and fence which might have been put together in America, grounds and all. and shipped to Garmisch and planted there.
 The house is about 60 yards from the gate. and halfway up the walk l met a very tall boy with an enormous neao' great big dark brown eyes, black hair and a fine complexion. He looked at me with a peculiar look of inquiry in ms eyes. as any tame animal might look at A. stranger. That boys face haunted me for days. He was the 13-year-old son of Doctor Strauss.
 woman, Mrs. Strauss herself, as afterward learned, dressed in Tyrolean costume, escorted me around to the rear of the house and there I saw the man had come so far to see, the most talked of musician In the world today, seated at A table on a veranda entirely in- closed in glass, writing the orchestra score of his new opera, the "Rosenkava- Her. The look in his eyes, the manner of speech and attitude impressed me at once with frankness. simplicity, direct ness, energy and dignity. l assuyed him that I would not take up much Of his time. but would like to have him tell me a few things about himself and his work.
 well" he said, "what Is 1t you wish to know? Go right on and talk, for l can write this score and talk as well, ' and for while he did.
 DO you feel that you have given to the world your best work or may we look for greater things?"
 This amused him.
 it? Why, I am only 46 now and have hardly begun by lifes work. In fact. 1t is only when a man is free from any thought of money matters that he can give all of himself to his art, and as said before, that is what I hope to do very soon."
 I had heard that Strauss was not very that he refused to even look at manu- script sent to him for inspection. He denied that.
 "A great many manuscripts are sent to me and if I were to give careful an- alysis of every one I would have no time left for composing" he said. T do glance through the larger works and fl any real merit shows itself look through it carefully and return 1t with letter often making suggestions. More than this could not be expected of me, as am not proofreader for others.
 You Americans are very clever. you are great money-makers, you buy the best of everything, you buy the best orchestras, you buy the best artists. you buy the best musical works. you build beautiful opera houses and halls for mu- sical entertainments. and with such op. portunities of absorbing good music America should give birth to great tai. ent.''
 You must have received large royal. ties for your popular song, ''Traum durch die Dammerung?" I remarked.
 "On the contrary, sold it for 30 shil. lings, but the publishers made e400 out oi 1t the first year. However. fared a lit. tie better with my Domestic symphony. for which I was paid e175o. nearly s90o' of your American money"