RICHARD STRAUSS

 

Four Last Songs

Final Scenes from Capriccio & Salome

 

SALOME (Hedwig Lachmann after Oscar Wilde)

1. Letzte Szene:”Ah! Du wolltest mich nicht deinen Mund“

CAPRICCIO (Clemens Krauss/Richard Strauss)

2. Mondscheinmusik

3. Letzte Szene: “Morgen mittag um elf!”  

FOUR LAST SONGS

4. Frühling (Hermann Hesse)

5. September (Hermann Hesse)                                              

6. Beim Schlafengehn (Hermann Hesse)

7. Im Abendrot (Joseph von Eichendorff)

 

Nina Stemme

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden / Antonio Pappano

 

Previously heard as Isolde to Domingo’s Tristan on the multi-award-winning EMI recording of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Nina Stemme launches her exclusive contract with EMI Classics with a Richard Strauss collection with a twist.

 

Strauss’s celebrated Four Last Songs are considered the pinnacle of the 20th-century soprano concert repertoire - reflective, haunting and beautiful. Uniquely, Nina couples this monumental cycle with the dramatic final scene of Strauss’s startling mid-period opera Salome. The more traditional coupling of the final scene from Capriccio completes this rich debut disc.

 

Nina Stemme joins forces again with members of the Tristan “team” also renowned for their glittering performances of Strauss’s operas - Antonio Pappano and The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

 

Speaking of Nina’s interpretation of the Four Last Songs, Pappano enthuses: “I trust the warmth of Nina's voice. There are a lot of lighter voices that have recorded the piece but you have to remember that Kirsten Flagstad sang the premiere and it's that kind of ample voice with warmth and body - Nina's voice - that I think is too rarely heard in this repertoire.”

 

EMI 3787972