Eric Koch for Anefo, CC0, through Wikimedia Commons
Richard Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder isn’t programmed as usually as one would possibly count on, however this season we’re getting it twice regionally. Final fall the New York Philharmonic offered a sadly pallid Miah Persson, whereas subsequent month Asmik Grigorian will supply her controversial studying at Carnegie Corridor with the visiting Cleveland Orchestra.
4 years in the past, Trove Thursday provided ten dwell recordings of the valedictory work sung by Kirsten Flagstad, Evelyn Lear, Carol Vaness, Ileana Cotrubas, Grace Bumbry, Mara Zampieri, Waltraud Meier, Christine Goerke, Jonas Kaufmann and Persson. Right this moment Chris’s Cache presents ten extra (as soon as once more in chronological order): Sena Jurinac, Gundula Janowitz, Jessye Norman, Roberta Alexander, Edith Mathis, Helen Donath, Malin Byström, Christiane Karg, Jacquelyn Wagner, and Corinne Winters.
Devoted followers of the VLL might surprise concerning the inclusion of Jurinac, Janowitz, and Norman as their industrial studio recordings are among the many perfect recognized. Nonetheless, I believed some listeners is likely to be curious to listen to dwell performances by the trio. Jurinac’s arrives seven years after her 1951 model (although I really like Sena, I’ve by no means been a giant fan of it) with Fritz Busch conducting, whereas each Janowitz and Norman’s recordings precede their studio efforts; the previous with Herbert van Karajan occurred in 1974, whereas the Norman-Kurt Masur collaboration got here in 1982.
Once I initially gathered these, I hadn’t included one by Mathis, however because the Swiss soprano handed away earlier this week simply earlier than her 87th birthday, I believed it acceptable to fold into the combo a late-career interpretation by the famous Sophie and Zdenka.
Since I heard Donath carry out these songs in 1990 with the Cincinnati Symphony, I wished to incorporate a memento of her. Byström needed to cancel final week’s premiere of Die Liebe der Danae in Munich, so presenting her 2018 VLL appeared like a very good comfort prize.
A current curiosity is Karg’s model which is accompanied solely by a solo harp! Wagner and Winters characterize the most recent technology of American sopranos doing these Strauss songs.
I might have simply included ten extra!
Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder
Sena Jurinac
Conductor: Rudolf Schwarz
London 1958
Gundula Janowitz
Conductor: Sergiu Celibidache
Rome 1969
Jessye Norman
Conductor: Franz-Paul Decker
Melbourne 1981
Roberta Alexander
Conductor: Adam Gatehouse
Amsterdam 1982
Edith Mathis
Conductor: Marcello Viotti
Saarbrücken 1995
Helen Donath
Conductor: Ivan Törzs
Mecklenburg 2000
Malin Byström
Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard
London 2018
Christiane Karg
Harpist: Anneleen Lenaerts
Würzburg 2023
Jacquelyn Wagner
Conductor: Pablo González
Madrid 2023
Corinne Winters
Conductor: Jakub Hrusa
Bamberg 2023
Every VLL could be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio participant above and the ensuing mp3 file will seem in your obtain listing.
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