The ''Four Last Songs'' (german: Vier letzte Lieder, link=no),
Op. posth., for
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880& ...
and
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
are – with the exception of the song "Malven" (Mallows), composed later the same year – the final completed works of
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
. They were composed in 1948 when the composer was 84.
The songs are "Frühling" (Spring), "September", "" (When Falling Asleep) and "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset). The title ''Four Last Songs'' was provided posthumously by Strauss's friend
Ernst Roth, who published the four songs as a single unit in 1950 after Strauss's death.
Strauss died in September 1949. The premiere was given at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
in London on 22 May 1950 by soprano
Kirsten Flagstad and the
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, ...
, conducted by
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major ...
.
The work has no opus number and was published in 1950 after Strauss's death. It is listed as AV 150 in Mueller von Asow's
thematical index, and as TrV 296 in the index of and Florian Trenner.
Background
Strauss had come across the poem "Im Abendrot" by
Joseph von Eichendorff
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 178826 November 1857) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism.Cf. J. A. Cuddon: ' ...
, which he felt had a special meaning for him. He set its text to music in May 1948. Strauss had also recently been given a copy of the complete poems of
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include '' Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and '' The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual ...
and was strongly inspired by them. He set three of them – "Frühling", "September", and "Beim Schlafengehen" – for soprano and orchestra, and contemplated setting two more, "Nacht" (Night) and "Höhe des Sommers" (Height of Summer), in the same manner. He also embarked on a choral setting of Hesse's "Besinnung" (Reflection), but laid it aside after the projected fugue became "too complicated".
With the exception of the song "Malven" (
"Mallows") composed later the same year, the songs are Strauss's final completed works.
The overall title ''Four Last Songs'' was provided by Strauss's friend
Ernst Roth, the chief editor of
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments.
Formed in 1930 thro ...
, when he published all four songs as a single unit in 1950, and in the order that most performances now follow: "Frühling", "September", "Beim Schlafengehen", "Im Abendrot".
[Jackson (1992)]
Sequence of the songs
Roth's 1950 published sequence follows neither the order of composition of the songs (''Im Abendrot'': May 6, 1948; ''Frühling'': July 20, 1948; ''Beim Schlafengehen'': August 4, 1948; ''September'': September 20, 1948) nor that of the 1950 premiere (by
Kirsten Flagstad conducted by
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major ...
). Although most recordings adhere to Roth, some stay with Flagstad/Furtwängler – ''Beim Schlafengehen, September, Frühling, Im Abendrot''. The latter include
Sena Jurinac
Srebrenka "Sena" Jurinac () (24 October 1921 – 22 November 2011) was a Bosnian-born Austrian operatic soprano.
Biography
Jurinac was born in Travnik, Bosnia-Herzegovina (then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), the daughter of a Croatian fa ...
's 1951 recording with the Stockholm Philharmonic conducted by
Fritz Busch;
Lisa Della Casa's 1953 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic under
Karl Böhm; and
Felicity Lott's 1986 recording with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under
Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian American conductor.
Early life
Järvi was born in Tallinn. He initially studied music there, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, ...
. There is no authority because Strauss did not conceive a cycle, but he did entrust the premiere to Flagstad.
Subject matter
All of the songs but "Frühling" deal with death and all were written shortly before Strauss himself died. They are suffused with a sense of calm, acceptance, and completeness.
The settings are for a solo soprano voice given soaring melodies against a full orchestra, and all four songs have prominent
horn parts. The combination of a beautiful vocal line with supportive horn accompaniment references Strauss's own life; his wife
Pauline de Ahna
Pauline Maria de Ahna (also known as Pauline Strauss (4 February 1863 – 13 May 1950) was a German operatic soprano and the wife of composer Richard Strauss. Her singing career was closely tied to her husband's career as a conductor and composer. ...
was a famous soprano and his father
Franz Strauss a professional horn player.
Towards the end of "Im Abendrot", after the soprano's intonation of "Ist dies etwa der Tod?" ("Is this perhaps death?"), Strauss musically quotes his own
tone poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
''
Death and Transfiguration'', written 60 years earlier. As in that piece, the quoted seven-note phrase (known as the "transfiguration theme") has been seen as the fulfillment of the soul through death.
Instrumentation
The songs are scored for
piccolo
The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the s ...
, 3
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...
s (3rd doubling on 2nd
piccolo
The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the s ...
), 2
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
...
s,
English horn
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alt ...
, 2
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...
s in B-flat and A,
bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave ...
, 3
bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuos ...
s (3rd doubling on
contrabassoon
The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences.
Differences from the bassoon
The reed is consi ...
), 4
horns in F (also E-flat and D), 3
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
s in C, E-flat and F, 3
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...
s,
tuba
The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...
,
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
,
harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...
,
celesta
The celesta or celeste , also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five- octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box ...
, and
strings.
Premiere and first recording
One of the last wishes of Richard Strauss was that
Kirsten Flagstad be the soprano to introduce the four songs. "I would like to make it possible," he wrote to her, "that
he songsshould be at your disposal for a world premiere in the course of a concert with a first-class conductor and orchestra."
The premiere was given posthumously at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
in London on 22 May 1950, sung by Flagstad, accompanied by the
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, ...
conducted by
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major ...
. The performance was made possible by a magnanimous offer by the
Maharaja
Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king".
A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...
of
Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude o ...
,
Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Bahudar. Though he could not be present, the music-loving maharaja put up a $4,800 guarantee for the performance, so that the ''Four Last Songs'' could be recorded for his large personal collection – then estimated at around 20,000 records – and the recording then shipped to him in Mysore.
The performance was recorded on acetate discs. They became badly worn before the first LP transfer, which was generally considered very poor. Subsequent restorations using modern digital technology were effected in 2007 by Roger Beardsley for
Testament Records, and in 2014 by Andrew Rose for
Pristine Audio.
Related songs
Timothy L. Jackson has noted that Strauss had composed the song "
Ruhe, meine Seele!
"", Op. 27, No. 1, is the first in a set of four songs composed by Richard Strauss in 1894. It was originally for voice and piano, and not orchestrated by Strauss until 1948, after he had completed one of his ''Four Last Songs'', "". The words ar ...
" for piano and voice in 1894 from a poem by
Karl Friedrich Henckell, but did not orchestrate it until 1948, just after he had completed "Im Abendrot" and before he composed the other three of his ''Four Last Songs''. Jackson suggests that the addition of "Ruhe, meine Seele!" to the ''Four Last Songs'' forms a five-song unified song cycle, if "Ruhe, meine Seele!" is performed as a prelude to "Im Abendrot", to which it bears motivic similarity.
Texts
Note: the texts for the three songs by Hermann Hesse are
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
ed until 2032, and therefore cannot be reproduced on Wikipedia. They can however, be found online at Lieder.net.
4. "Im Abendrot"
("At sunset")
(Text:
Joseph von Eichendorff
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 178826 November 1857) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism.Cf. J. A. Cuddon: ' ...
)
Wir sind durch Not und Freude
gegangen Hand in Hand;
vom Wandern ruhen wir beide
nun überm stillen Land.
Rings sich die Täler neigen,
es dunkelt schon die Luft.
Zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen
nachträumend in den Duft.
Tritt her und lass sie schwirren,
bald ist es Schlafenszeit.
Dass wir uns nicht verirren
in dieser Einsamkeit.
O weiter, stiller Friede!
So tief im Abendrot.
Wie sind wir wandermüde –
Ist dies etwa der Tod?
Through sorrow and joy
we have gone hand in hand;
we are both at rest from our wanderings
now above the quiet land.
Around us, the valleys bow,
the air already darkens.
Only two larks soar
musingly into the haze.
Come close, and let them flutter,
soon it will be time to sleep
so that we don't get lost
in this solitude.
O vast, tranquil peace,
so deep in the afterglow!
How weary we are of wandering –
Is this perhaps death?
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
"Frühling" text
"September" textRichard Georg Strauss (1864–1949). ''Vier letzte Lieder'' / ''Four Last Songs''vierletztelieder.com (discography)
* ,
Renée Fleming
Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for ...
,
Lucerne Festival Orchestra,
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...
{{authority control
Strauss, Richard
1948 songs
Songs by Richard Strauss
Adaptations of works by Joseph von Eichendorff
Adaptations of works by Hermann Hesse