Strauss, R: Four Last Songs, etc.

June 2007

“Furtwängler is in incandescent form in the Tristan excerpts, and even more so in the Dawn and Rhine Journey from Act 1 of Götterdämmerung. The music whizzes along with the most virtuoso contributions possible from the recently formed Philharmonia, the horns, headed by Dennis and Aubrey Brain, very much to the fore. Flagstad then sings the Immolation with quite wonderful freshness and conviction... The Tristan Prelude and Liebestod offer a similar frisson. Has the Prelude ever sounded so impassioned and urgent as here? Did Flagstad... ever convey so much tragic passion?”

September 2007

*****

“The world premiere of Four Last Songs in its best transfer ever, plus some previously unissued Wagner from the same concert.”

2010 edition

*/**

“The urgency and purity of Flagstad's singing in these live recordings, made at the Royal Albert Hall in May 1950, bear witness to her extraordinary qualities, defying age - as indeed Wilhelm Furtwangler does in his radiant conducting”

2010

“Here's a live recording of the concert in 1950 when Flagstad gave the premiere of Strauss's Four Last Songs, followed by some truly unforgettable Wagner; yet it's the latter that makes the CD so exciting.
Flagstad and Furtwängler had several collaborations in these Wagnerian excerpts, but caught live in very reasonable sound they produce performances that lift one out of one's seat. Furtwängler is in incandescent form in the Tristan excerpts, and even more so in the Dawn and Rhine Journey from Act 1 of Götterdämmerung.
The music whizzes along with the most virtuoso contributions possible from the recently formed Philharmonia, the horns, headed by Dennis and Aubrey Brain, very much to the fore. Flagstad then sings the Immolation with quite wonderful freshness and conviction, and this at the end of a longish programme. The results are to invoke thetingle factor. It is worth mentioning that the pair had just been giving Ring cycles at La Scala and seem entirely at one in their readings.
The Tristan Prelude and Liebestod offer a similar frisson. Has the Prelude ever sounded so impassioned and urgent as here? Did Flagstad, in her numerous recordings of the Liebestod, ever convey so much tragic passion? Probably not, and she is in much better voice than in the complete 1952 set.
The performance of the Strauss, previously available on the 'grey market', is now heard in improved sound; but Flagstad, for all the richness of her singing, gives a fairly generalised interpretation compared with many that were to follow, and the conductor was never the greatest of Straussians. Still, as a historic document this is an important issue. The whole disc, carefully remastered, is a treasure.”