"Vier Letzte Lieder"

[Conchis]

I saw Lott from the choir stalls, with the LPO and Masur, back in 1999. The only time I've heard the work live. I don't have a recording, though.

What are opinions on the 'world premiere' recording, from the RAH back in 1950, with Flagstaff singing and Furtwangler waving the stick? It doesn't seem to considered one of the classics and I've heard the sound isn't great, even allowing for a live performance at that venue and in that timeframe.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Norman's is incredibly persuasive, I find, but I somehow doubt that the composer would have approved of the tempi that she adopts, especially in Im Abendrot.

Strauss did vary his own tempi from performance to performance.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Flagstad/Furtwangler - the world premiere. Dreadful sound, but what an occasion.

[ahinton]

Strauss did vary his own tempi from performance to performance.

He did indeed but I think that he was tending more towards less slow tempi in general terms late in life at the time when he wrote these magnificent songs.

[Richard Tarleton]

No one's yet mentioned Lott, so I will!

Yes they have, see #3!

[Richard Tarleton]

I saw Lott from the choir stalls, with the LPO and Masur, back in 1999. The only time I've heard the work live. I don't have a recording, though.

That's the concert I was at, conchis (#3) - Bruckner 4 after the interval I think, I've lost the programme.

[ahinton]

Yes they have, see #3!

Oops! Must pay more attention. Sorry!

[LHC]

Popp and Tennstedt - every time.

I saw Popp perform this with the LPO and Tennstedt at the Festival Hall. She was wonderful, and I remember her discreetly wiping a tear away as she listened to the orchestra end of the last song.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Indeed - if you're used to Janovitz - 9.54 as against Janovitz/Karajan's 7.04 for Im Abendtrot - depends what mood I'm in

A typo, there, I fear, RT.



You missed out the from the end of the lovely Gundula's surname.

[Richard Tarleton]

A typo, there, I fear, RT.



You missed out the from the end of the lovely Gundula's surname.

Indeed

I also have her Capricchio, with Bohm (and her Cosí...)

[Nick Armstrong]

Tetrachord, I've unearthed a previous thread on this topic

I continue to concur with myself here !

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

rarely listen to any recording other than the Jessye Norman one already referred to. Yes it is extremely slow, but the last words are of course "is this something like death?", at which I imagine an infinitely extended single moment of stillness, and (in this case) beauty. That's how I would like it to be.

My problem with Masur's tempo is that it is "extremely slow" all the way through the last of the Last Songs - Strauss marks the start as an "Andante", and Masur is much slower than my own idea about the speed that that word can mean. Now, my own recording hasn't sold as many copies as the Masur/Norman (in fact, by some weird oversight from the record companies it hasn't even been made yet) so what do I know? Well - the problem really comes later, when Strauss adds immer langsamer (at fig G) for the words you cite: the sudden chill of the Music at this point isn't as pointed with Masur/Norman, because I don't feel that they have allowed themselves enough room to get significantly "slower and slower" - and when the voice stops, and Masur has to deal with the two further sehr langsams ... well, he's just lost my interest and patience by this point. (I'm sure this lost him no sleep.) Strauss was a master of the Adagio - but none of these four songs have particularly slow markings: Allegretto, and then three Andantes. Masur loses the shock of the concluding pages by giving the game away from the very start - if he'd ever appeared in The Mousetrap, he'd've come onstage shouting "It's the copper!"

Nobody else does it in that way as far as I'm concerned.

I agree.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I also have her Capricchio, with Bohm (and her Cosí...)

- I've adored the sound of her singing ever since I bought a cheap LP of "highlights" from the Karajan-led Schöpfung when I was fourteen - hitherto, I'd never suspected that Haydn's music could send a thrill to my loins in the way that she soars up to the top Bb towards the end of "Nun bent die flur das frische Grun".

[Nick Armstrong]

I continue to concur with myself here !

PS Ferney, please note the statutory Gundula firmly in place in my 2012 post

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

PS Ferney, please note the statutory Gundula firmly in place in my 2012 post

I had!