Customer Reviews

The Jessye Norman Collection - Richard Strauss Lieder

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Jessye Norman's voice is a force of nature, and this collection of Richard Strauss songs shows it off beautifully. Her singing style on these discs shows awesome power when singing with the full Gewandhaus Orchestra (disc 1) and delicate intimacy when singing with the wonderfully responsive piano accompaniment of Geoffrey Parsons (disc 2). Throughout, Jessye Norman's musicianship and diction remain both expressive and crystal clear.

For me the "Four Last Songs" of Richard Strauss, which begin the first disc, are the epitome of vocal music. As sung by Jessye Norman, they restore my faith in humanity. The additional Strauss songs add to that pleasure.

Both discs were recorded in the mid-1980's using DDD technology. The sound engineering is excellent. The somewhat distant-sounding mike placement in the first few bands improves with the more intimate sound of the later bands of disc 1 and the entirety of disc 2. The liner notes unfortunately do not include the text or translation of the songs, and give no internet address to download them from the record company. These might be available from other sources, but are not essential to the enjoyment of these discs.

All in all, this is one of those must-have CD pairs for anyone who appreciates what poetry, music, and the human voice can achieve together. These songs will bring many hours of pleasure to the attentive listener.

I received my copy of this CD a couple of weeks ago, and I have been avidly listening to it since. (In fact, I'm listening to it right now.) I want to make this clear: no one can sing Richard Strauss's music like Jessye Norman. The first time I heard her sing "Ständchen," I nearly wept. She knows these Lieder inside and out, and that shows in her performances of them.

In Richard Strauss: Lieder, Norman artfully interprets many old favorites such as "Allerseelen," "Schlechtes Wetter," and "Traum durch die Dämmerung." The pianist is also very good. If I could have only one CD of Strauss's Lieder for the rest of my life, this would be the one. Jessye Norman certainly does not disappoint.

The other CD includes Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder and other songs like "Cäcilie" and "Zueignung." The quality of this recording is superior. Jessye Norman's powerful voice is able to glide upon the wonderful orchestral tapestry Strauss has woven rather than just sit on it. I much prefer this recording of the Vier letzte Lieder to Kiri Te Kanawa's recording.

I strongly recommend this collection to anyone who loves classical music.

The collaboration between these two great artists, Norman the soprano and Strauss the composer, was a match made in heaven. This so-called "Collection" actually comprises two CDs: the first devoted to the composer's songs with orchestra and the second to his lieder for voice and piano. The accompaniments wonderfully complement the accomplishments of performer and creator: the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur in the first and Geoffrey Parsons at the piano in the second. There is no shortage of good recordings of the Four Last Songs that, as on the first CD, are frequently coupled with a further six that match the mood and style of the latter, and for which Strauss provided equally compelling orchestral scores, but none can match the searing beauty of Norman's tone and interpretation. Much as I once enjoyed them, I don't expect to listen ever again to my copies of Schwarzkopf or Te Kanawa singing these gems, and my fond memories of other great sopranos accumulated from live performances have been all but eclipsed. The Four Last Songs, written at an even later age than that at which Verdi created Falstaff, are among the miracles of music for voice and orchestra other than Opera, joining an exclusive company that includes Berlioz' Nuits d' Ete and Mahler's song cycles. The other six are equally ravishing. All 10 follow each other seamlessly and could all have been composed at the same time. The "late" have a freshness and the "earlier" a maturity that make them all sound contemporaneous. I suppose that this is one way of saying that unlike composers such as Wagner, Verdi and Stravinsky, Strauss' musical lexicon never developed beyond its mature middle period. By contrast with these compositions, his true lieder have been the subject of very few recordings other than the 6-disc set by Fischer-Dieskau and Moore, and I have not often heard them in the concert hall. Those on the 2nd CD are in the company of the greatest songs in the repertoire; they are beautifully sung by Norman, with expressive, technically secure, and often playful work by Parsons enhancing the magic of the various moods of these charming pieces, few of which extend beyond 3 minutes. Perhaps the awesome reputation of the composer's orchestral and opera repertoire has tarnished them with the image of triviality, but this they most certainly are not, even though they were mostly inspired by the poems of third-rate authors. Many are at one and the same time dazzling jewels and small masterpieces. Only the very last song, Malven, that Strauss wrote in the year of his death disappointed me. It is the subject of a revealing story in the useful accompanying brochure that includes informative essays on the music and its interpreter, but not the texts of the compositions. What can you expect for $18? What you get is more than enough.

What can I say? This is one of those "if I was stuck on a desert island...." keepers. THE FOUR LAST SONGS and additional cd of lieder is a gorgeous piece of heaven. Jessye Norman's gift is other-worldly. Nothing else has to be said.