I'll start
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
Felicity Lott
Jessye Norman
Any one else better?
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
Felicity Lott
Jessye Norman
Any one else better?
Precisely. It was Strauss who chose Flagstad after allIn light of the above discussion I had to listen again to Jessye Norman in these songs. We should recall that Strauss wrote them with the rich, powerful voice of Kirsten Flagstad in mind - or, at the very least, he chose her to premiere them. She, unfortunately, no longer had the freedom and ease on high to do them justice, as can be heard in the recording that was made on the occasion. But I'm going to venture the opinion that had Strauss heard Norman's recording he would have heard his vision of the work fulfilled.
My favorite performances of the songs have always been Schwarzkopf's by a fair margin, with perhaps a slight preference for her fleeter, less micromanaged earlier version with Otto Ackerman. Given that preference, I'm almost surprised to find that Norman really overwhelms even my usual dislike of slow tempos in this music (which caused me to dislike Rene Fleming's first recording). This is simply another kind of experience altogether, from Schwarzkopf/Ackerman or anyone else, and the unique quality and magnitude of Norman's voice cause me to expect different things from it, not only vocally but interpretively. As the songs proceed I find myself more and more astonished at the ease and splendor of the sound as it mounts the music wave upon wave. This kind of technical security is rare in dramatic voices, and Norman's confidence in the soprano tessitura combined with a deep, almost contralto-like timbre here make an effect I can only call uncanny - and magnificent. When we come to the final song, "Im Abendrot," Masur sets a tempo that would sound incongruous with a light voice, but Norman fills out the spacious musical landscape with a tonal amplitude and a breadth of phrasing that makes of it the most majestic of valedictions.
The Olympian majesty of Norman's singing and her sensitive but never fussy projection of the text, with Masur giving her all the room she needs to spread her eagle wings, challenge my preconceptions of what these songs should sound like, and I find it a very valid alternative to the lighter, lyric-soprano sound picture we are used to. This must be what Strauss had imagined Flagstad would give him, and it's a pity he couldn't be around to hear it.
Of course I was referring to your idea that had King Richard II heard Jessye Norman's Four Last Songs then his reason for composing them would have been fulfilled.Woodduck: Post hoc ergo propter hoc has to do with an improper assumption of causation. I don't see the relevance. What's assumed to have caused what?
"Strauss would have appreciated a variety of singers and interpreters of his work". . . just as long as one keeps in mind that his 'ideal' was Flagstad. . . right? :angel:Woodduck: Yes, I'm sure Strauss would have enjoyed Schwarzkopf's silvery timbre and fine-tuned artistry. I'm sure he would have appreciated a variety of singers and interpreters of his work. It's to be hoped that we all can.
I would be surprised if Strauss didn't hear Kirsten in her prime . By the way, had Leider or Lubin been still active at that time, Strauss would have definitely let the diva share the songs. Imagine how Leider would soar gleamingly in Frühling or Lubin let her autumnal voice fade out at the end September. Yes, I can totally picture these great hochdramatische soprano do justice to the Vier letzte Lieder.Flagstad was in her fifties then, and Strauss probably knew her voice in its prime. Too bad he didn't write the songs a decade earlier.
Strauss called Salomea Kruszelnicka, one of the reigning divas at La Scala, "perfect" as Salome and Elektra. It is true that she is a monster of an artist (she sung everything from Verdi, Meyerbeer, hardcore Wagner, Strauss to Puccini and popular verismo), but her voice indeed sounds "light" (in a good way) with impressive coloratura, nothing like Nilsson, Varnay, Modl, Behrens at all.As to Greg's point about his feeling that Elisabeth Schumann would make a good Salome, I suspect that was more a comment on the girlish, silvery quality of her timbre than on her voice's size, but it might even be taken to show that he tended to underestimate the size of voices needed to sing his music.
I 'love' this post by the way.I have the Janowitz/Karajan recording in my collection, and have been surprised that some here seem so fond of it. The consistent purity of her vocalism is indisputable, but for me it's the cold purity of a porcelain statuette. I can think of no voice of comparable reputation which contains so little color or expressive variety. When I hear this Lady of Perpetual Virginity making every piece of music she sings sound pretty much like every other piece of music she sings, and all of them sound little more human than an ondes Martenot, I can only think that people must simply be in love with the sound itself and care little about the words the composers have set so lovingly. Certainly the words go for almost nothing in her Four Last Songs.
I first knew Janowitz as the first flower maiden, teasing Parsifal in the magic garden, a part that couldn't have suited her better (especially in contrast with the real woman who's about to come on the scene); then I heard her in the old Karajan Brahms Requiem, and after knowing Schwarzkopf in the Klemperer recording I thought Janowitz sounded like a disembodied spirit or a space alien - beautiful, but weirdly so. Actually I rather liked the effect she made, but I have no hesitation in calling it an effect. I would never use that word to describe Schwarzkopf. Schwarzkopf's Brahms comforts me; Janowitz's fascinates initially, but finally bores me.
Is mine a minority opinion? Whatever. I just thought I'd throw it out there. I think Strauss was right in feeling that a richer, darker voice could bring something to his songs that a pure lyric voice like Janowitz's - but is there another voice as cut-glass pure as hers? - could not.
I added the Auger/Previn to my collection of VLL today. I'm looking forward to hearing it, there have been many good reports.I'm a big fan of Gundula Janowitz, but not of Karajan. Besides, I think the younger Karajan did this music better with Schwarzkopf (albeit in lesser mono sound). I wish Janowitz had recorded these works with Rudolf Kempe and the Staatskapelle Dresden instead. Haitink is another excellent Strauss conductor, but why did they take Im Abendrot so fast? It doesn't work for me (I agree with Bill).
The same is true for Lisa Della Casa's wonderfully sung Four Last Songs--another great singer working with an arguably second rate conductor, Karl Böhm, who rushes her in the final song (& elsewhere), bringing it in at a speedy 6:00 minutes. Sorry, that's just bad conducting. At least, to my ears, they're not on the same page, as apparently Della Casa's instincts were to slow down and Böhm didn't want to.
In contrast, a live recording with Elly Ameling from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam pairs a great singer with a 1st class, seasoned Strauss conductor, Wolfgang Sawallisch. (Sawallisch performed every note that Strauss ever composed over the course of his long career, or at least set out to do so & got very close...). However, unfortunately, the concert was late in Ameling's career, and her voice isn't quite as fresh and youthful sounding as it was in her prime. Nevertheless, the artistry is still there, and I find the subtlety of her interpretation fascinating.
I also like Elisabeth Söderström's two recordings (with Dorati & Armstrong--especially in the 3rd song), Arleen Auger and the Vienna Philharmonic (Previn's timings are near ideal, especially in the 4th song--best ever), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in the 3rd song (with Ackermann and Szell), and for sheer opulence, Jessye Norman and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Masur, who brilliantly take the final song more slowly than anyone else I've heard.