Strauss, R: Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder)

“she soars through them all, pearl-like, backed by the succulent purr of Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra, conducted by Markus Stenz.” The Times, 20th July 2012 ****

“Schwanewilms is arguably the finest native German interpreter of Strauss’s more lyrical operatic roles, yet despite a soprano of considerable loveliness, she can sound disengaged, particularly from the words. Here, she gives a good account of herself, especially in the closing monologues of Arabella and Countess Madeleine” Sunday Times, 22nd July 2012

“There’s some wonderful singing [in the Capriccio extract]...She’s also excellent as Arabella. At the start of the solo her singing is touching and with a hint of vulnerability to it. Later...she becomes more impassioned, as the music and the sentiments of the text demand...the Gürzenich-Orchester is inspired by Markus Stenz to some gorgeous playing.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“Whichever are your preferred Four Last Songs, this performance will equal them. The excerpts from Arabella and Ariadne are just as impressive.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 *****

“[Fleming's] voice is perfectly suited to [these 'magical late songs'] demands, less of range than of tender, expressive feeling…a must for more than merely Straussians” Anthony Holden, The Observer, 7th September 2008

“Renée Fleming's first recording of the Last Songs, made in 1996 (on RCA), was distinctly mixed. Here Christian Thielemann is a much more natural Straussian, powerful and luxuriant, and Fleming's voice has gained in distinctiveness and diction, to splendidly dramatic effect, often with a real 'float' at the top.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2008 ****

“As Fleming explains in a note, the Four Last Songs has become the work that she has performed most often. Throughout the four songs, Fleming not only lavishes every resource of tonal richness at her command, but she seems to be urging all sorts of extra details from the text. The sound is stupendous, Fleming's voice complemented by the Munich Orchestra, with Thielemann bringing out every detail in Strauss's nostalgic orchestration.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

“[Thielemann] gives her voice space to soar and swoop in its illimitable fashion, but refuses to indulge her much-discussed habit of dropping consonants half the time...this is a strikingly fretful interpretation that contemplates mortality with profound unease as well as resignation...Elsewhere, she gives a ravishing account of Verführung and the finest performance of Winterweihe I can think of.” The Guardian, 10th October 2008 ****

“[Norman is] grand, impassioned, noble, dignified, unmannered in this unforgettable interpretation” Gramophone Magazine

“Pappano and his orchestra (what solo playing!), while never hurrying, keep the forward pace of an attentive Lied accompanist - emotional points are made without milking, matching the cool beauty of the soloist's timbre. Stemme has vocal height and weight in equal measure and (again) really uses her text.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2007

“…Antonio Pappano never gets to record more than bleeding chunks of the Strauss operas… Yet nothing illustrates better his genius for going straight to the theatrical heart of the matter than the opening blaze of this Salome finale. It's both beautifully textured and keenly energised, and his sense of the drama seems to have rubbed off on Nina Stemme's Salome, poised between anger and nostalgia, and Gerhard Siegel's anxious Herod.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2007 *****

“To borrow a phrase from Richard Osborne, mighty tents are already pitched on these fields – for the Four Last Songs Schwarzkopf/Szell, Della Casa/Böhm, Norman/Masur; for the Salome finale Krauss/Cebotari, Welitsch/ Reiner and so on. But the conductor who has already got onto record a newly thoughtthrough Bohème, a Tosca that can hold its own with de Sabata's, and a modern Tristan with Domingo need fear no competition. All the hounds of hell are let loose by the ROH's percussion section to launch a wild, but always intricately shaped and detailed, account of young Princess Salome's sickly Liebestod.
Being already a searching, grown-up Isolde, Stemme, like her 1950s forerunners, now really manages to be a teenage Isolde too, by turns sweet, spooky and growing up.
The discs's running order is cunning and effective, and both conductor and soprano are in command of the switch to Madeleine's musicor- words dilemma. In Capriccio's Moonlight Interlude, as in the Songs, Pappano achieves richness without overweighting; his rubato lingers rather than indulges (like… but let's not compare). Stemme is a more torn and dramatic Countess than, say, Janowitz, Schwarzkopf or Della Casa; this performance harks back to Clemens Krauss and Viorica Ursuleac, emotion shaping the (fine) text, rather than vice-versa.
As if to create a valedictory survey of Strauss, the soprano voice and the orchestra, the start of 'Frühling' aptly seconds the Countess's mood.
Michael Tanner's note for the new remastering of Flagstad's creator's performance (see above) remarks how tempi in this work have got slower over the past 50 years. Pappano and his orchestra (what solo playing!), while never hurrying, keep the forward pace of an attentive Lied accompanist – emotional points are made without milking, matching the cool beauty of the soloist's timbre. Stemme has vocal height and weight in equal measure and (again) really uses her text. Finally, the record is produced and engineered with sensitivity to the layout of Strauss's instrumental and vocal textures.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010