Strauss, R: Waldseligkeit, Op. 49 No. 1

“This is a performance of transcendent art” proclaimed Opera News on hearing Diana Damrau’s interpretation of Strauss’ Zerbinetta on her last Virgin Classics album, ‘Coloraturas’. In this collection of Strauss songs, recorded in the composer’s hometown, she is joined by the Munich Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann, the leading German conductor of his generation.

Soprano Diana Damrau, described by The Sunday Times as “the most dazzling star to have emerged from Germany in recent years” was born in Bavaria. The region’s capital, Munich, was the birthplace of Richard Strauss, and in March 2009 a programme of the composer’s songs was presented at the city’s Gasteig Philharmonie, with Damrau accompanied by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under its Chief Conductor, Christian Thielemann.

“Strauss loved female voices,” says Damrau, “and he explores some extreme possibilities in these many-layered songs, each with its different point of view. Sensitivity to the words is vital to telling the story of each song, to capturing the rapid changes of mood and all the colours.”

Strauss’ operatic roles for lyric-coloratura soprano, notably Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Aithra (Die Aegyptische Helena) and Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) have played an important role in Damrau’s career. As Opera News wrote when reviewing her last Virgin Classics album, ‘Coloraturas’: “Zerbinetta … is one of Damrau's calling cards, having served for her stupendous Met debut in 2005. ‘Grossmächtige Prinzessin’ provides every opportunity to dazzle the listener, with stratospheric high notes, staccatos, roulades and trills, as Zerbinetta cajoles, berates and mocks the gloomy Ariadne. Every note and word reveals Damrau's artistry, the result of constantly questioning and probing into the composer's intentions; while the soprano has a knack for concealing or highlighting technical difficulties at will, here just enough self-absorbed delight breaks to the surface that we are as captivated by Zerbinetta's own theatrical skills as by Damrau's vocal athleticism. Damrau/Zerbinetta even seems to be commanding the orchestra's responses to her whimsical, moody outbursts. This is a performance of transcendent art.”

On the new CD, favourites such as ‘Ständchen’, ‘Wiegenlied’, ‘Allerseelen’, ‘Cäcilie’ and ‘Zueignung’ feature alongside more rarely heard numbers, and six tracks recorded under studio conditions now complement the sixteen songs captured live.

Strauss had a lifelong affair with the soprano voice, and many of his songs were written with his (reputedly shrewish) wife Pauline's voice in mind. This collection brings together five songs performed with crystalline purity by Christine Schaefer as well as some more dramatic settings performed by Karita Mattila, concluding with Mattila's reading of the immortal Four Last Songs (Vier Letzte Lieder).

Acclaimed and cherished as one of Australia’s finest operatic artists, Nance Grant had a voice possessed with beauty and power, an ease of technique, a perfection of phrasing and taste that cemented her place in the hearts of Australian music lovers. This long overdue tribute presents one of the great sopranos from down under - in recordings previously thought lost.

Nance Grant chose to stay close to her family in Australia rather than pursue an international career, even though Sir Edward Downes insisted he could ‘fill her books’ with performances in Britain and Europe. So this double album offers those who never had the opportunity to hear her, the gift of discovering a voice of magnitude and generosity, and for those who grew up hearing her on stage, the chance to reacquaint themselves with her artistry.

The original tapes from radio broadcasts of the 1960s and ’70s have been carefully restored to give more than a hint of the majesty of Nance Grant in a characteristic range of repertoire. The recordings represent significant landmarks in the development of opera in Australia: the emerging Victorian State Opera’s enormously successful Idomeneo, re di Creta, and Maria Stuarda under the direction of Richard Divall; Australian Opera’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Fidelio and Tannhäuser with Sir Edward Downes; and one of the first of the Australian Opera/ABC collaborations presenting concert performances of Wagner operas, with Grant as Sieglinde in Die Walküre conducted by Leif Segerstam.

The programme also pays homage to Nance’s considerable concert career, including a complete song recital - Greig, Richard Hageman and Richard Strauss - with pianist Geoffrey Parsons, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and an excerpt from Mendelssohn’s Elijah.