Strauss' Four Last Songs - 16 Apr Essential Classics

[Chris Newman]

Richard, we have reminisced in the past on the Soderstrom/Schmidt-Isserstedt night and the astonishing way she made the songs so joyful. Margaret Price, Heather Harper (her Prom in '81 was heaven) and Soile Isokoski are my other favourites for the same reasons. Too many other singers make the songs pessemistic missing the point completely.

[Richard Tarleton]

Richard, we have reminisced in the past on the Soderstrom/Schmidt-Isserstedt night and the astonishing way she made the songs so joyful. Margaret Price, Heather Harper (her Prom in '81 was heaven) and Soile Isokoski are my other favourites for the same reasons. Too many other singers make the songs pessemistic missing the point completely.

We have, Chris, and it was you who reminded me who the conductor was that night (1972/3?). I've heard nothing like enough live performances. The lustrous Katerina Karneus sang it in Swansea last year, sadly I was unable to go. She's a mezzo of course - it must lie within a mezzo's range as well?

[Stanfordian]

Did anybody else listen to Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs performed by Lisa Larsson on R3, Essential Classics, Monday 16 April just after 11 am. A most impressive CV so why was I underwhelmed? Views from our lieder experts would be appreciated.

In the Strauss Four Last Songs if I had to pick the two recordings that I most admire they would be: Jessye Norman with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Kurt Masur (the re-issed disc with the Wagner Wesendonk Lieder is a quite superb coupling) and also Renée Fleming with the Münchner Philharmoniker/Christian Thielemann.

Strauss is well extremely served in accounts of the Four Last Songs and I also admire: Gundula Janowitz with Berliner Philharmoniker/Karajan and Soile Isokoski with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/Marek Janowski and Lucia Popp with the LPO/Klaus Tennstedt (on EMI 'The Best of Lucia Popp').

Of the older accounts of The Four Last Songs Elisabeth Schwarzkopf with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/ George Szell is excellent.

The sleeper is a splendid recording of The Four Last Songs by German soprano Michaela Kaune on an outstanding all-Strauss disc of orchestral songs with North German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/Eiji Oue on Berlin Classics. Michaela Kaune joined the Deutsche Oper in Berlin back in 1997/8.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

She's a mezzo of course - it must lie within a mezzo's range as well?

Goes up to a top B (in the 1st & 3rd songs) and spends a fair bit of time floating on the A and A-flats, too. So, not impossible, but would require a mezzo confident in this tessitura.

[Roehre]

I don't like the Jessye Norman performance (though excellently sung), as it is IMO by far too slow in especially Beim Schlafengehen
I stick to Schwartzkopf/Szell and Janowitz, the latter however not with the BPO/Karajan (which I certainly admire), but with Concertgebouw/Haitink (which beats the Karajan more than only gradually. But is a live recording, unfortunately).

These songs experienced a "hausse" comparable with the Mahler symphonies.
In the mid 1970s (Janowitz/Karajan being from 1973, Szell/Schwartzkopf recorded 1966) there was hardly more than a handful of recordings available, very similar with the Mahler symphonies (in 1970 only 4 or 5 complete sets).
Now approximately every soprano (and some mezzos) -whether possessing the abilities to do so or not, especially in maintaining breath in especially Beim Schlafengehen- seems to have to make a recording of these 4 songs.

[Barbirollians]

FHGL - that is a striking performance but even in the recent cleaned up Testament version the recording quality is ropey for Flagstad and Furtwangler.

I am surprised nobody else has gone for Jurinac - she has the beauty of voice of Janowitz and care for the words of Schwarzkopf. Only della Casa matches her in my affections and I have the versions by and indeed have enjoyed Janowitz.Popp, Isokoski,Schwarzkopf,Flagstad,Brewer,Norman and Soderstrom ( BBC Legends).

[BBMmk2]

Ok!!