What is your favorite Strauss The Last Four Songs?


The performances I enjoy are:

1. Karajan with Gundula Janowitz on DG
2. Tennstedt with Lucia Popp on EMI

Are there any other performances you recommend?

Thanks in advance and happy listening.

Otto
yu11375
My favorite is Elizabeth Schwarzkopf with the Berlin Radio Symphony, conducted by George Szell, on the EMI Great Recordings Of The Century label. It is most loved my German speakers; because the words came long before the music. Ms. Schwarzkopf puts the correct emphasis and meaning to those words; and sings wonderfully as well. There is an earlier recording she made with Ackerman that some like even better, but I think that it is available only as a used LP.


A friend of mine just loves this piece of music. When it was performed a few years ago by the Baltimore Symphony, he went to every performance. He is the one who clued me into this recording. He wore out his LP of it, he played it so much.

Renee Fleming has gotten good reviews singing it in concert and on CD, which is noteable since Ms. Schwarzkopf is her teacher. Fleming has recorded it with Christoph Eschenbach, which is a great modern recording choice for audiophile sound quality.


I do love this piece deeply. One night I can't stop myself playing it continuously (4 times).

Sugarbrie,

Please kindly provide more details in term of the difference(s) between Schwarzkopf under the directions of Szell and Ackerman which is available on CD format, EMI CDH 61001. I am always wondering which recording I should collect.

The other post-war composition moves me profoundly is Metamorphosen. I can still remember so vivid the performance by Dresden Staatskapelle under the direction of Sinopoli at Carnegie Hall a few years ago. Subtle and refine. It is all history now. Pity!

Happy Listening!

Otto
Hi Otto!
I suggest you get both Schwarzkopf recordings.
To quote John B. Steane, the eminent Gramophone critic, as he remarks in his eloquent notes "... the two performances are complementary, one does not have to choose between the freshness of the (Ackerman) one and the experience of the other (Szell)."

I have multiple recordings of many pieces of music. I enjoy them all for various reasons. I guess I should pick up the Ackerman on CD also.