| Information Mp3s Sheetmusic | Richard StraussTFV 296, Opus W1504 last songsSong 1948.Songs with texts from Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff. |
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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 soprano Kirsten Flagstad accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Strauss did not live to hear it. Strauss had recently come across the poem Im Abendrot (At Sunset) by Joseph Eichendorff, which he felt had a special meaning for him. He set its text to music in May of 1948. Strauss had also recently been given a copy of the complete poems of Hermann Hesse, and he arranged three of his works – 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 complete set. In dictionaries published as late as 1954[1], the three Hesse songs were still listed as a group, separate from the earlier Eichendorff song setting. The overall title Four Last Songs was provided by his friend Ernst Roth, the chief editor of Boosey and Hawkes. It was Roth who categorized them as a single unit and put them into the order that most performers now follow in performance: Frühling, September, Beim Schlafengehen, Im Abendrot.[2] 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. Among the sopranos who have recorded the songs are Barbara Bonney, Montserrat Caballé, Lisa della Casa, Jane Eaglen, Renée Fleming, Dame Heather Harper, Barbara Hendricks, Soile Isokoski, Gundula Janowitz, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Sena Jurinac, Dame Felicity Lott, Karita Mattila, Birgit Nilsson, Jessye Norman, Lucia Popp, Leontyne Price, Sylvia Sass, Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth Söderström, Eleanor Steber, Nina Stemme, Cheryl Studer, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Deborah Voigt, and Waltraud Meier.
Text(see also http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/avj2/vier_letzte_lieder.htm) 1. "Frühling"
Composed: July 20, 1948 2. "September"
Composed: September 20, 1948 3. "Beim Schlafengehen"
Composed: August 4, 1948 4. "Im Abendrot"
Composed: May 6, 1948 NotesTowards 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. Sources | |||||||||
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Array". Allthough most Wikipedia articles provide accurate information accuracy can not be guaranteed. |
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