Strauss: Four Last Songs [Original recording remastered]

Richard [1] Strauss (Composer), Kurt Masur (Conductor), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (Orchestra), Jessye Norman (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Jessye Norman
• Orchestra: Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
• Conductor: Kurt Masur
• Composer: Richard [1] Strauss
• Audio CD (August 14, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Philips
• ASIN: B000PMFTDQ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,705 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The great Jessye, September 19, 2008

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Desert Girl - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Strauss: Four Last Songs (Audio CD)

Is Vier Letze Lieder better served by a lyric rather than a dramatic soprano? Jessye's profound reading of text is always deeply moving, and her supreme legato line and dark oceanic voice is a marvel to hear. She screeches a little on "wunder der vor mir" in Fruhling, and over-emphasizes or over-expresses "es zittert durch meine Glieden deine selige Gegenwart" at the end of the song, to its disadvantage, I feel. September is exquisitely sung and ends in poignant tenderness; the way she sculpts the line "Langsam tut er die mudgeword Augen zu" is enough to make you cry. In Beim Schlafengehen she forces her voice on the line "und die Seele, unbewacht", reaching for that pitch, but breaks your heart at the end with the sustained crescendo to forte on "zu leben." Jessye is good at the ending of songs. Im Abendrot is a slow, pensive meditation, and in the ending line "ist dies etwa der Tod? (can this be death?) she conveys a keen but almost delicate resignation and acceptance. I personally think the Four Last Songs are better with a voice lighter in tone and with a more effortless fluidity -- Strauss's extremely demanding tessitura demands such a nimble voice. However, this is a superb recording by a great American soprano, done in 1983, somewhere in mid-career. The orchestra under Kurt Masur is masterful and expressive. Having four versions of these songs (Norman, Te Kanawa, Schwarzkopf and Fleming), I think the Norman and Te Kanawa are, beyond a doubt, the best.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DIVINE, June 15, 2009

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B. Martinez "Fortepianist" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Strauss, R.: Four Last Songs, etc. (MP3 Download)

OK, so I'm NOT crazy. It seems everyone agrees, this is the most beautiful rendition of the four last songs recorded to date. When I first heard this album as a young man I was transported. I was obsessed! And I was very fortunate to meet Miss Norman at a Tower Records (remember Tower Records?) and she signed my copy of the sheet music! Put this album in your iPod, put in your ear buds, close your eyes and prepare to be lifted to the heavens!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving interpretation, January 6, 2009

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Estebandido (New Orleans) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Strauss: Four Last Songs (Audio CD)

I have several recordings of the Four Last Songs and Jessye Normans' is, by far, the most moving. Her gorgeous voice triumphs over any technical difficulty and the music speaks with its own intensity.