What is your favorite Strauss The Last Four Songs?

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.

as a supplement to schwarzkopf w/szell, i find myself going to felicity lott. i love her voice - its a little lightweight compared to others but in this music i find that i actually prefer that.

Sugarbrie / Newbee,

Please kindly advise your favorite performance(s) of Metamorphosen.

Thanks!

Otto

otto, while i like von karajan's lp i'm not too fond of the recording by dg. i find myself listening to jarvi on chandos as it contains a good version of tod und verklarung and drei hymnen as well as metamorphosen (it also has lott). and, ormandy doing death and transfiguration and metamorphosen with the philadelphia on rca is worthwile as well. i'm sure there are others but this is such intense music that i seldom listen to it and have not really explored other performance possibilities.

Newbee,

Truly intense music indeed. There is another recording by Klemperer. That album released by EMI contains Siegfried Idyll (very rare original orchestration version), Mahler Symphony No. 9 and Metamorphosen. As most of Klemperper's interpretations, it is "heavy".

Happy Listening!

Otto