Composer: Richard Strauss
Performer: Anna Netrebko
Orchestra: Staatskapelle Berlin
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalogue: 4793964
Release: 2014
Size: 1.21 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Vier letzte Lieder, AV 150
01. No. 1 Frühling
02. No. 2 September
03. No. 3 Beim Schlafengehen
04. No. 4 Im Abendrot
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40
05. Der Held
06. Des Helden Widersacher
07. Des Helden Gefährtin
08. Des Helden Walstatt
09. Des Helden Friedenswerke
10. Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung
It’s Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, making her first German-language recording, who gets top billing here, and that’s understandable: Netrebko is emerging as one of the top stars in opera, with a big voice and an outsized personality to match. Her reading of Richard Strauss’ reflective Four Last Songs does come out sounding a bit like the Italian opera in which she specializes, but to her credit she dials back the drama and achieves a sensitive response to the texts. The Four Last Songs, though, make up less than a third of this album’s more-than-65-minute length; the balance is devoted to a fine performance of the Strauss tone poem Ein Heldenleben, with the Staatskapelle Berlin, the orchestra that premiered the work, led by Daniel Barenboim. Strauss’ highly pictorial score receives detailed treatment from Barenboim, and the musicians follow him every step of the way. This is a live recording, made to benefit the restoration of the Staatsoper unter den Linden, the Berlin State Opera building. What little is lost in the sound environment is more than amply repaid in the sense of immediacy felt and expressed by the musicians. Recommended perhaps for Netrebko fans, decisively for those of Barenboim.
Saving the best for last in the Richard Strauss anniversary 2014. The world’s most luxurious soprano, Anna Netrebko, sings Richard Strauss’ sumptuous Four Last Songs, accompanied by the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim. An irresistible, all-star combination.
Netrebko is a phenomenon. The world’s best-selling active soprano and quite simply, the undisputed superstar – “la prima donna assoluta” (New York Post) – of opera today. Known equally for her poise, her sensuality and her voice’s unmistakable color, Strauss’s elegiac Four Last Songs are an exquisite vehicle for her expressive gifts: Netrebko’s first recording of these gorgeous, iconic songs.
Barenboim: conductor, pianist, humanitarian – perhaps the world’s most complete living musician. A venerated interpreter of Wagner, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner, in many ways the music of Richard Strauss represents the apotheosis of Barenboim’s musical ethos. In 1954, the then 11 year-old Barenboim was introduced to his idol, conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. It was Furtwängler who conducted the world premiere of Strauss’ Four Last Songs in 1949
The Staatskapelle Berlin, one of Germany’s oldest and most prestigious orchestras boasts a proud Strauss tradition including great performances and recording under the composer himself, as well as under great Straussians Felix Weingartner, Leo Blech, Erich Kleiber, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer, Clemens Krauss, Hans Knappertsbusch, Joseph Keilberth, Ottmar Suitner and Daniel Barenboim.
The Staatskapelle and Barenboim then interpret Ein Heldenleben, one of the most vivid and popular tone poems by Strauss, who himself was Generalmusikdirektor of the Staatskapelle a century ago.