Bob Behr asks for a recommendation for a recent biography of Richard
Strauss.

I was impressed with "Richard Strauss" by Tim Ashley, enough so that I
wrote a brief review for Amazon.com (which, of course, you can access via
Classical.net and if you buy via that route, Dave Lampson's Classical.net
gets a small remuneration).

Here's my review:

In a fairly straightforward biography emphasizing the composition
and production of Strauss's music, this book also looks unblinkingly
at his anti-Semitism (which diminished after the birth of his two adored
half-Jewish grandsons) and at his confused and confusing involvement with
Hitler's Third Reich.  The music is lovingly and skilfully described.  This
is the portrait of a man who is utterly devoted to his art and his family,
and who is all too human when confronted with the political pressures
bearing on them.

Scott Morrison