Everyone has their own opinion about the best recording of the Strauss Four Last Songs. I’m partial to the Schwarzkopf recordings. I discovered the songs while watching “The Year of Living Dangerously” and they have never failed to calm me in times of stress.
Does another soprano and recording do it for you? If so, who and why.
5 responses so far ↓
1 William A. Hall // Aug 18, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I never saw the film, but first heard the recordings, I think, on your station. I had several versions, now all lost to a house fire, but the Schwarzkopf recording was “the one”. Somehow, without being lugubrious, it captured the elegiac beauty that is the hallmark of this, Strauss’ final and, in my mind, finest work.
2 Patrick Reynolds // Aug 19, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf!
I prefer the recording conducted by Otto Ackermann, though over the years have grown to love the Szell version as well. There is a humanity, a vulnerability in her voice, that is (to me) an essential quality in the Four Last Songs.
Speaking of Strauss on film — Many years ago I saw the Schwarzkopf/Karajan “Der Rosenkavalier” film at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor, and sat right behind Schwarzkopf that day. She was a guest lecturer at the U of Michigan at that time (early 1980s). I don’t believe she was still singing in public at that time, but during her masterclasses she would occasionally, briefly, and oh so beautifully sing.
I’ve been smitten by her since my father introduced me to her recordings — I’ve never been attracted so much by another voice.
3 Zach Cramer // Aug 23, 2008 at 9:22 am
Renée Fleming with the Houston Symphony under Christoph Eschenbach would be my choice. She has such color and depth to her voice. Which matches the Houston Symphony extremely well. Fantastic orchestra + great soloist = amazing listening experience. Reading the poems that the text of the piece is drawn from, by Joseph von Eichendorff and Hermann Hesse, is quite an emotional experience. I would most strongly recommend doing that at some point.
4 Jack Daugherty // Aug 27, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I’ve often identified two recordings of near perfection, one of which is the Jessye Norman/Masur/Leipzig Gewandhaus Orch. of the Strauss “4 Last Songs”. Strauss songs are gorgeous and continue to grow on me. 2d choice would be Schwarzkopf. Of favorite sopranos, it’s like asking a dedicated music-lover to idientify his favorite piece of music = impossible, but I would say that no one matches Ellie Ameling doing Schubert lieder.
BTW, that other “near perfect” recording is the Rostropovich, von Karajan, Berlin PO of the “Rococo
Variations”.
5 Ken Grabach // Sep 16, 2008 at 7:41 am
I am inclined to agree with my Oxford friend, Jack Daugherty. That Jessye Norman recording can leave me in tears of ecstasy and sadness. It has been a while since I’ve heard that disk. I just read the cover feature of Opera News about Renee Fleming. She has just made a new recording, I cannot recall with whom, of the Four Last Songs. The number of sopranos and mezzos who perform the cycle, let alone record it, is so small. Each one is a true rarity, and there is so much room for interpretation by singer and conductor, and sound of orchestra. We will never have too many recordings of this cycle. It brings out so much that is wonderful in the high woman’s voice.
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