4 last songs

The Four Last Songs (German: Vier letzte Lieder) for soprano and orchestra were the final works of Richard Strauss, composed in 1948 when the composer was 84. The premiere was given in London on 22 May 1950, featuring the soprano Kirsten Flagstad accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Strauss did not live to hear it.

Background

Strauss had come across the poem Im Abendrot (At Sunset) by Joseph von Eichendorff, which he felt had a special meaning for him. He set its text to music in May 1948. Strauss had also recently been given a copy of the complete poems of Hermann Hesse, and he arranged three of them – Frühling (Spring), September, and Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep) – for soprano and orchestra. (According to Arnold, a fifth song was unfinished at Strauss' death.)

There is no indication that Strauss conceived these songs as a unified set. In dictionaries published as late as 1954^[1], the three Hesse songs were still listed as a group, separate from the earlier Eichendorff setting. The overall title Four Last Songs was provided by his friend Ernst Roth, the chief editor of Boosey & Hawkes. It was Roth who categorized them as a single unit with the title Four Last Songs, and put them into the order that most performances now follow: Frühling, September, Beim Schlafengehen, Im Abendrot.^[2]

Subject matter

The songs deal with death and were written shortly before Strauss himself died. However, instead of the typical Romantic defiance, these Four Last Songs are suffused with a sense of calm, acceptance, and completeness.

The settings are for a solo soprano voice given remarkable soaring melodies against a full orchestra, and all four songs have prominent horn parts. The juxtaposition of the beautiful vocal line with the respectfully supportive brass accompaniment has clear references to Strauss's own life: His wife Pauline de Ahna was a famous soprano and his father Franz Strauss a professional horn player.

Recorded interpretations

Among the sopranos who have recorded the songs are Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, Barbara Bonney, Montserrat Caballé, Lisa Della Casa, Melanie Diener, Jane Eaglen, Renée Fleming, Christel Goltz, Heather Harper, Anja Harteros, Barbara Hendricks, Soile Isokoski, Gundula Janowitz, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Sena Jurinac, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Hellen Kwon, Dame Felicity Lott, Charlotte Margiono, Éva Marton, Karita Mattila, Waltraud Meier, Ricarda Merbeth, Birgit Nilsson, Jessye Norman, Adrianne Pieczonka, Lucia Popp, Leontyne Price, Anneliese Rothenberger, Sylvia Sass, Anne Schwanewilms, Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth Söderström, Eleanor Steber, Nina Stemme, Cheryl Studer, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Deborah Voigt and Teresa Żylis-Gara. The final rehearsal for Kirsten Flagstad's London premiere was captured, rather imperfectly, on acetate discs and was last issued on Testament in 2007.

Text

1. "Frühling"

(Text: Hermann Hesse)

Composed: July 20, 1948

2. "September"

(Text: Hermann Hesse)

Composed: September 20, 1948

3. "Beim Schlafengehen"

(Text: Hermann Hesse)

Composed: August 4, 1948

4. "Im Abendrot"

(Text: Joseph von Eichendorff)

Composed: May 6, 1948

Instrumentation

The songs are scored for piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd doubling 2nd piccolo), 2 oboes, English Horn, 2 clarinets in B-flat and A, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F (also E-flat and D), 3 trumpets in C, E-flat and F, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp and strings.

Notes

Towards the end of Im Abendrot, Strauss musically quotes his own tone poem Death and Transfiguration, written 60 years earlier. As in that piece, the quoted theme symbolizes the fulfillment of the soul in death.

Cultural References

In Philip Roth's Exit Ghost, he suggests Four Last Songs as the ideal music for a scene his character has written:

Music: Strauss' Four Last Songs. For the profundity that is achieved not by complexity but by clarity and simplicity. For the purity of the sentiment about death and parting and loss. For the long melodic line spinning out and the female voice soaring and soaring. For the repose and composure and gracefulness and the intense beauty of the soaring. For the ways one is drawn into the tremendous arc of heartbreak. The composer drops all masks and, at the age of eighty-two, stands before you naked. And you dissolve.

Sources

1. ^ Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edition, 1954; ed. Eric Blom
2. ^ *Jackson, Timothy L. Ruhe, Meine Seele! and the Letzte Orchesterlieder, Richard Strauss and his World. Princeton University Press, 1992.

External links

• Free recording of "Frühling" from the Four Last songs, Irina Vasilieva (Soprano) with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society
• Free recording of "September" from the Four Last songs, Irina Vasilieva (Soprano) with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society
• Free recording of "Beim Schlafengehen" from the Four Last songs, Irina Vasilieva (Soprano) with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society
• Free recording of "Im Abendrot" from the Four Last songs, Irina Vasilieva (Soprano) with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society