Customer Reviews

Strauss: Four Last Songs/Songs With Orchestra

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My two choices for Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss are the Norman and the Schwarzkopf versions. Going by sound Jessye Norman and Kurt Masur combine to make beautifully phrasing-her sound is rich, pure, and arches over the heavens. By comparison Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's voice sounds a tad smaller, but her interpretation of both the music and the lyrics is integrated so well that you are swept into the conception of the piece. In song 2, SEPTEMBER, when she sings, Lange noch bei den Rosen, Bleibt er stenhen, sehnt sich nach Ruh, (Long by the roses, it tarries, yearns for rest), I can feel the length of the stem and the bloom of the rose and I feel I am calm, lying in a quiet garden. But my first choice is the Norman, my soul takes wing and I am gone! Both have good booklets, with German text and English translations, though the text and translation is not side by side in the Norman. They both included several other Strauss songs with full orchestra, equally excellent.

Summary: want the best Four Last Songs? Buy this. But buy the all-Strauss program in preference to the newer release in which the Four Last Songs are coupled with the Wagner Wesendonk Lieder instead. However, both are recommended.

There are so many great recordings of this piece, especially Kiri te Kanawa, Fleming, Caballe, Eaglen, Lott, Rothenberger. And there are also recordings where arguably the voice is the wrong kind of Strauss voice, the lighter, more silvery kind, for example Lisa della Casa and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, who despite that reservation both give us wonderful recordings. The only recording I know that I wouldn't recommend is Anna Tomowa-Sintow's thin-toned effort with Karajan.

(One of history's small tragedies is that Flagstad never gave us a proper studio recording of this music. She gave the first performance with Furtwangler, of which a scratchy recording exists, apparently taken off the radio. As well as appalling sound, she seems to rush the first song, before settling down for the others. But a proper studio recording, with good engineering and relaxed conditions, and Flagstad in full voice was denied us: I hope Richard Strauss gets to hear it in heaven.)

But even with a piece that is so often so well recorded there has to be a best, and in this case it's a clear best: Jessye Norman's is the Holy Grail of Four Last Songs recordings. While Schwarzkopf might have the edge over her for word-pointing, Norman has a huge, even unfair advantage: these songs are supposed to bathe us in warm, chocolate-liqueur sound, creamy and voluptuous as (well, I won't say what, here); and Norman has that richness and warmth and to spare. With all that beauty, the depth of her interpretation is a bonus, almost too much to hope for, but here it is, delivered.

The excellence of the performance continues in the rest of the program, more Strauss Lieder favourites. If you like Strauss Lieder at all, you will duplicate many songs already in your collection (Morgan, etc), but with singing like this it doesn't matter.

More recently the Norman/Masur Four Last Songs has been re-issued with Norman singing the Wesendonk Lieder. Her performance there is also beautiful, but overall I'd recommend going for the earlier release with the all-Strauss program. It's a more generously filled CD, and I prefer the stylistic continuity of staying with Strauss, rather than jumping to the Wagner mid-way through the CD. The Wagner is greater music than the Strauss songs, but it is in a different mood, more thoughtful and more astringent (it is lush music, in most contexts; only astringent in comparison with the Strauss). Ideally, buy the all-Strauss program, and seek out Norman's recording of the Wesendonk Lieder as well.

Despite the preference for the older release with the all-Strauss program, I should say that the Wagner coupling does providfe even greater music, and once you've made the slight adjustment from one composer to the other, you can enjoy another great performance. In either version of this CD, I whole-heartedly recommend this perfect and perfectly beautiful recording of the Four Last Songs.

Cheers!

Laon

Some recordings captured when singers were at their splendid best (and now thankfully digitally remastered so that the acoustics remain au courrant) are simply staples of the music library. This recording made in 1982 (!) remains a benchmark in the great recordings of Richard Strauss' magnificent 'Vier letzte Lieder', right up there along with Schwarzkopf, Janowitz, and Popp. In collaboration with Kurt Mazur and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, this reading of the 'Four Last Songs' is languid, full of recall of a life spent and resignation to the concept of mortality.

Norman takes her time with the beauty of the phrases, lingering over each of the thoughts and contemplative passages, and sounding absolutely luxurious of tone and intelligence. For those deeply moved by some of the non-Philip Glass music used in 'The Hours' film, then here is the recording used as background in Clarice's home as she prepares her party for her dying friend.

Equally lush are the accompanying Norman readings of six of Strauss' more familiar songs for voice and orchestra: 'Caecelie', 'Morgen', 'Wiegenlied', 'Ruhe, meine Seele', 'Meinem Kinde', and 'Zueignung'. Bliss, this. For soul enrichment place this miraculous CD to play in a quiet room at sunset and the subsequent gloaming and feel this Norman conquest. Grady Harp, February 2005

I first heard Jessye Norman's recording of Four Last Songs sometime in the late 1980s. I remember vividly working in my office one late afternoon when I became aware of some other-wordly sound coming from my radio. Within minutes my co-worker Ilene walked in and without a word started to listen with me, enthalled by by both Norman's voice and the beauty of these Strauss Lieder. Since then I have listed to the recording perhaps two hundred times, as well as to several other recordings and live performances of the work (most recently at Tangelwood in 2000), and still have not lost my wonder for the piece.

Most remarkable are the matching sonorities of the Gewandhaus orchestra and Norman's voice, and the astonishing control Norman has over her breathing. No other soloist of this work I am sware of extends her legatos the way Norman does, especially in the final "Im Abendrot." The interplay of voice and orchestra in the lines "So tief im Abendrot" breaks my heart every time, and is there anything in music to compare to the violin solo in "Beim Schlafengehen"?

Years from now, when I'm ready to pack it in and looking for one single recording to play as I slip into the "broad, slow peace" of whatever lies beyond, I cannot imagine it will be anything other than Norman's Vier Letzte Lieder.

The inspired combination of the heart gripping music of the Richard Strauss Four Last Songs with the heavenly voice of Jessye Norman has made this recording my most favourite music. Time and time again I return to its hauntingly memorable, deeply emotional sound. No other piece of music so commands my total attention as these pieces. And the lieder which follows the Four Songs are by no means musical 'stocking-fillers'. Norman's mellifluously gorgeous voice sweeps effortlessly to the higher notes and exhibits an astonishingly smooth control throughout the entire recording. Its unparalled quality has motivated me to buy this CD for friends on no less than five previous occasions. It is a stunner ! And it takes ones breath away with its blazing beauty. Peter Donoghue

Masur keeps the tempi deliberate and languid in the Four Last Songs, but far from the performance sagging, the music opens up into great spaces of sound, and Jessye Norman fills them. Her voice blossoms and soars. It is often gentle without being delicate -- much of the beauty is in the strength of voice apparent even in the quieter passages. And when her voice climbs to ecstatic climax, such as that in Beim Schlafengehen, it is electrifying -- overpoweringly passionate but not at all sentimental. And perhaps that is the ineffable element which raises this recording from merely excellent into something magical: that quality of beauty without false effort or apology; of filling cathedrals of sound with natural grace. One way or another, the experience is unforgettable.

just thinking about this record gives me goosebumps, lots of them. And I've owned it for almost twenty years. I first encountered it in the movie "Year of Living Dangerously", which fans of this record (and I'm sensing there are quite a few) might enjoy seeing. I don't really get the twaddle about too-slow pacing or bad musicianship, some people just like to sound like authorities i guess. For me, it is nearly perfect (though there is one moment where she kind of eats the mic and the levels clip a bit painfully), and most other music pales in comparison. It's kind of the polar opposite to Vivaldi schmaltz, just quietly soulful, not trying to make a big noise about its greatness, or hyping some cloying High Beauty hairballs or whatever most classical seems caught up in...wistfully but peacefully surveying creation and life as the sun slowly sets for the last time.

OK so you've read all the other reviews about speed and pace etc. But if you truly want

one of the most stunning vocal recordings of all time, then look no further than this disc.Having been involved in the classical music industry for many years i've listened to

(and own) many recordings of this virtuoso piece. Many of them deserve great praise (Janowitz,Schwartzkopf & Te Kanawa to name but a few) but Norman's voice and Masur's orchestration, combined with a superlative Philips digital recording make this version unbeatable by any standards. I would highly recommend this disc to anyone wanting to "explore" classical vocal music as a beginner or even those with only a passing interest in opera. If I was Philips Classics I would offer a money back guarantee , satisfaction guaranteed !!!! Just as a footnote this recording was used in David Lynch's Wild At Heart, Just watch the opening credits and you'll be swept away the lush orchestral intro from " Im Abendrot " and who's to say its too slow?

Thank you to the previous reviewers whose comments led me to this recording. It is sublime: a superb blend of fine poetry and music with singing of such grace and profound beauty. Jessye Norman's interpretation is insightful and deeply moving.

Not sure which of the growing number of recordings to purchase (Te Kanawa, Fleming, Eaglen et al)? I'm sure they're all fine, but I think this work also requires gravitas, a quality I associate most readily with Ms Norman.) This is a stunning performance. Highly, highly recommended.

I must agree wholeheartedly with the other reviews listed here. I also use this recording to introduce friends to operatic singing. Unbelievable is the range and control the she exhibits in the very first phrase of "Fruhling". Is she an alto or a soprano? In September, her voice is as beautiful as any I've ever heard. And "Beim Schlafengehen", the high point of the CD for me, blows you away from the violin solo to the end of the song. What power!

I first heard this CD at a friend's in '84 and immediately bought it afterwards. In '86 I had the honor of hearing Norman sing it in person (with the Houston Symphony, along with Elizabeth's arias from Tannhauser). Believe it or not, she was even better in person. I sat in the back of the hall, and it was as if she were singing 5 feet in front of me! Get this CD!