Richard Strauss - Vier Letzte Lieder | Four Last Songs | Jessye Norman, Wolfgang Sawallisch [HD]
Музыка
Richard Strauss - Vier Letzte Lieder | Four Last Songs | Quatre Derniers Lieder | Quattro Ultimi Lieder | Cuatro Últimas Canciones | Quatro Últimas Canções, o.Op. 150, 1948.
Orchestre de La Suisse Romande conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch. Jessye Norman.
Geneve, Victoria Hall, 19.IX.1979.
Vier Letzte Lieder | Four Last Songs:
00:00 I. Frühling | Spring | Printemps
03:58 II. September | September | Septembre
09:25 III. Beim Schlafengehen | When Falling Asleep | L'heure Du Sommeil
15:00 IV. Im Abendrot | At Sunset | Au Soleil Couchant
Jessye Norman talks about Richard Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder | Four Last Songs | • Video
Studio Recording | • Video
"Do you still sing 'Four Last Songs'?
Jessye Norman - I only do them with conducters who really understand what's happening with them. I don't want to say this condescendingly, but so many regional orchestras feel that if I show up, we're sound like Sergiu Celibidache in Munich. But that's not quite the way it works. There was one bright, lovely man who was conducting 'Four Last Songs' for the first time, and he had a vision the night before that it would be slower. And I said, "I really appreciate that you're having an artistic moment, but it's marked Allegretto"
How long will you continue to sing?
J.N. - As long as it make sense.
Jessye Norman Interview to "Gramophone" IX.2010, p.39
"Strauss' Four Last Songs. For the profundity that is achieved not by complexity but by clarity and simplicity. For the purity of the sentiment about death and parting and loss. For the long melodic line spinning out and the female voice soaring and soaring. For the repose and composure and gracefulness and the intense beauty of the soaring. For the ways one is drawn into the tremendous arc of heartbreak. The composer drops all masks and, at the age of eighty-two, stands before you naked. And you dissolve.
Philip Roth
Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder is a set of four songs for soprano and orchestra, composed between 1946 and 1948. The texts for the songs are "Im Abendrot" by Joseph von Eichendorff, followed by three texts by Hermann Hesse, "Frühling," "Beim Schlafengehen," and "September." For many, these songs are regarded as the pinnacle of Strauss' output as a composer of lieder. For the most part, Strauss had composed his earlier lieder with piano accompaniment and refrained from writing orchestral songs, like those Gustav Mahler composed earlier in the century. In terms of style, the music itself continues in the idiom that Strauss used for his later operas, especially Capriccio. The melodies are long and sinuous, with subtle, chromatic harmonies which support nuances in the text. For one, "Im Abendrot," Strauss even quotes from Tod und Verklärung when the narrator of the poem expresses intimations of death. In all the settings of the Vier letzte Lieder, Strauss composed subtle music.
Richard Strauss' extraordinarily beautiful Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) (1948) for voice and orchestra are among the last music the composer ever wrote. Actually, Strauss did not intend to place the songs into this grouping in which they are best known. The title "Four Last Songs" was provided posthumously by Strauss's friend Ernst Roth, who published the four songs as a single unit after Strauss's death. Three of the settings are on texts by Hermann Hesse; the last in the group, Im Abendrot (At Dusk), is a "separate" setting of a poem by Joseph Eichendorff. (Strauss also left behind another unfinished Hesse setting, Nacht.) Still, given the themes of the Hesse songs - "Frühling" (Spring)," "September," and "Beim Schlafengehen" (Time to Sleep) - the inclusion of the Eichendorff song seems a natural extension of and appropriate end to the cycle.
The Four Last Songs are virtually indistinguishable in technique and musical language from the fine songs Strauss wrote 50 years earlier. They are, in short, rich and fully Romantic, expressive in feeling and symphonic in sound. As such, they might well be thought of as the final masterpieces of the line of German Romantic Lieder that began with Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebter. The final words of Im Abendrot are "Is this really Death?" Here, Strauss inserts the famous yearning theme from his own Death and Transfiguration, providing what can only be regarded as a most fitting epitaph to his own life and work.
Towards the end of "Im Abendrot", exactly as the soprano's final intonation of "der Tod" (death) ceases, Strauss musically quotes his own tone poem Death and Transfiguration, written 60 years earlier. As in that piece, the quoted six-note phrase (known as the "transfiguration theme") symbolizes the fulfillment of the soul into death.
Strauss died in September 1949. The premiere was given posthumously at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 22 May 1950 by soprano Kirsten Flagstad and the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Пікірлер: 156
I was lucky enough to play Strauss with her in the early eighties. No one in my whole career surpassed this woman.
@soavemusica
Күн бұрын
Lucky also to have this on video. This is great singing. How lovely that a dramatic soprano is capable of creating such lyrical poetry.
I first heard Jessye Norman sing in Amsterdam in 1971, while on my honeymoon. She was then little known. When she walked onto the stage with John Shirley Quirk, the audience gasped. She started to sing: the audience fell instantly under the spell of her vocal beauty, and at the end of the concert the audience went wild. I was fortunate to hear her live two more times, once in San Francisco and then again in Washington, DC. By then she was famous, and the audiences continued to go wild. Incomparable, exquisite, and, above all, intelligent with a perfect understanding of the texts she sang. Thank God for recordings so that listeners in the future can revel in this beauty!
@d.b.levitt
Ай бұрын
Do you recall what she was singing?
I don't know who invented the internet, but for this moment of pure grace accessible to all, he deserves a statue... More seriously, the score is perfect, the orchestra wonderful, the conductor incredible and Jessye Norman delivers here one of the most beautiful voices that can be heard.
@violadamore2-bu2ch
2 ай бұрын
I couldn't say it better. Her voice singing ANYTHING (in her prime) sends me to some sort of other realm.
Jessy Norman looks gorgeous en sings absolutely perfect and very moving! Just imagine this is a LIVE performance NOT a recording. Her choice of intonations, colours, timing combined with great vocal technique en beautiful voice. What a woman!
I had the enormous luck to hear she in Madrid singing these songs, and it was one of my lifetime great moments. I adore Strauss and also Miss Norman. Simply the best
One of the true greats of the world. I am in tears every time I listen to Jessye
One of her best performances of these great songs,Richard Strauss final expression of his love for the soprano voice, and an orchestra and conductor who are up to her musicianship; she’s not the only recorded soprano who has done a great job on these magnificent songs but , for me, undisputed the best and the one I return to. Again and again. And since her death there’s a special pathos to hearing her.
The greatest Straussian of my lifetime IMO. Still the benchmark for excellence in theses songs
Ms Norman was a superb interpreter of Strauss. Magnificently performed.
No one has sung those last stanzas of "September" as beautifully. What a treasure this video is!
@soavemusica
Күн бұрын
Agreed.
Oh my God, she’s so beautiful! Excellent interpretation of Strauss‘s masterpiece.
Die Bögen, die sie singen kann, sind phänomenal. Schier endloser Atem.
@retohofmann5878
Жыл бұрын
Genau...und das bei der limitierten dynamischen Uebertragung durch youtube. Habe gerade vorhin Ihre CD mit Masur gehört...einfach unglaublich, eine Naturgewalt!
Unforgetable J. Norman!🌹A outstanding personalaty and a god given voice🙂This is without any doubt one of her great performances of the R. Strauss music🌹👋👋♥️
Without doubt the best interpretation of the 4 Last Songs
@thisismyyoutube1846
5 жыл бұрын
By far. She's the best.
@davidrosenfeld5944
3 жыл бұрын
Honouring Nicolás Chumacenco today 20 december ,the great violinist the great human being from rolando prusak Karin, David estela Rosenfeld 😃
@waynesmith3767
6 ай бұрын
If you’re the novelist I like your books. And your reviews.
I imagine what marvelous works would the Greats be inspired to write for Ms. Norman had she lived in their time..
Une interprétation d'anthologie ! Mme Jessye Norman au sommet de son art, déploie tout son talent et son expressivité dans un Allemand parfait... *Admirable* !
She will be missed.
@adoris864
3 жыл бұрын
I'm yet having difficulty accepting this tremendous loss.
a loss..... so beautiful.
One of the last great Divas! RIP
Jessye Norman is a Goddess!
What a mighty roar She has sends chills right through you The Angel's will agree Jessey rest in love
It's the way she embodies the music and line so intimately. The colour of the pianissimos... Such delicacy, such loving caresses of the words!! Without doubt unsurpassed x
What a voice. What a trailblazer. I wish I had been able to see her perform live.
With all respect for the use of superlatives: Jessye Norman is the unrivaled soprano for Strauss Four Last Songs. It´s the plenty of this beautiful voice, the ability to colorize the demanding vocal lines in an unique interpretation with endless breath. The recording is a monument and this performance also. Thank you very much for the upload, it´s a treasure! :-)
@katherinegibson7229
6 жыл бұрын
lassisimo hE Andy
@CapetownCarework
6 жыл бұрын
how she doesn't get lost or run out of breath in this late annotation of Strauss, god alone knows... impeccable
@user-di2qh5vm2b
4 жыл бұрын
Unfortunately She leaved the Earth last year but her unique deep vapored gentle unforgettable voice will stay here and touch human hearts.
@affenschwanz64
Жыл бұрын
She definitely owned them.
@edgreisl1
10 ай бұрын
NO ONE has ever sung these songs like her. Greatly greatly missed ❤️
Thank you for not putting ads in the middle of this beautiful music.
these works are a perfect example of music so profoundly beautiful and majestic that they transcend the genre
❤💫Thank you Miss Norman
22:20 - Epic! What a beautiful and strong woman!
Wow.....Die hier noch junge Jessye Normann....und doch schon eine so reife Musikalität....gerade dieses vermisse ich bei vielen heutige jungen SängerInnen...
The greatest concert I ever saw was in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1989. Jessye Norman sang the 4 Last Songs with Kurt Masur conducting the Leipzig Gewandus. I loved the recording but this was better. Those who saw it those years ago and are still alive talk about it to this day. It was true ex stasis in the original meaning of the word. Norman, Masur, and Strauss are all to be given the highest praise. This was great too.
@christopherbatie5059
7 ай бұрын
Me too. I cried nonstop for several minutes because the music was so beautiful . I’ll remember her singing this to the end of my days.
@christopherbatie5059
7 ай бұрын
Ps. I was there
That is perfection!
This music is very personal to me. In fact, I have chosen it to be played for my memorial service after my passing. Of the 5 recordings I own, it is Ms. Norman's recording with Mazur that I have chosen. In this video we have Ms. Norman in very early career and a more secure upper range than in the Mazur. I am absolutely thrilled to have found this video and see her performing this music. Thanks so much!
The pinnacle of art…
This is quite simply magnificent. I first heard Ms. Norman in 1976 at the Harrogate Festival where she sang Nuits D'ete. It was extraordinary. This performance is from relatively early in her career then, when she was living in Europe and performing there mostly. I have had the pleasure of hearing her many times in New York, including a simply sensational all Strauss recital at the Met with Jimmy Levine accompanying on piano. The most communicative singer of this music that I know. Sawallisch shows his usual unfussy mastery and is much quicker in the last song than Masur who ruins that Philips recording by being too slow (for me) in the last song - the opening has no shape, no line. Such a pity. Of course Wolfgang was going to get the tempi right. Jessye Norman had a lava-flow of sonority that was perfect for Strauss - a huge voice, with a fabulous lower register. Strauss I think would have loved this.
@serious7179
2 жыл бұрын
I could only have dreamt of seeing her in person.. I would not have been able to stop crying. Truly a splendid force of nature. She is sorely missed
I attended Ariadne at the MET and I was in the eight row. Unforgettable experience.
Le son fabuleux de la OSR de cette époque !!! Et Jessye encore jeune, 5 ans avant l'enregistrement mythique avec Masur ! Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo précieuse 🙏
Bravoooo!!!
Jessy Norman...she was the best interpret of the four last songs...ever!!!!! i know there is a Lucia Popp...there is a Janowitz and a Lisa della Casa and many more beautiful sopranos but Jessye hits me all the time....specially with Kurt Masur and Richard Strauss the greatest composer of the 20th century.. and yes i know there is also Gustav Mahler whom i adore as much but sadly Mahler never composed an Opera ..and i looove Opera thats why Richard Strauss sits a tiny bit higher on the Olymp. i hope you readers understand me..no bad feelings ❤Music ..thats all about and thats why we are here and listen to it.......thx for posting this treasure
@alger3041
2 жыл бұрын
Richard Strauss the greatest composer of the 20th century? I think that Gustav Mahler for one could stand alongside of him.
@retohofmann5878
Жыл бұрын
You're absolutly right with Jessye, but Strauss? C'mon...
@MrMichaelvier
Жыл бұрын
@@retohofmann5878 and for you : Let me write you, what the great Glenn Gould once said about Richard Strauss : he said in an interview : For me, (Glenn Gould), Richard Strauss was the greatest Composer of all time. That would probably for me a bit to much, but if you look to the huge work of Richard Strauss, he left to the World , starting to compose at the age of 6 , like Mozart, ....almost every Masterpiece he composed became world famous ) Death and Transfiguration ...Zarathustra...Don Juan...Till Eulenspiegel...Heldenleben....Don Qiuxote....Alpine Symphony.. ..4 letzte Lieder...Metamorphosen....2. Piano-concertos... 2 Horn concertos ...Oboen-Concerto ...Chambermusic ...a famous Ballet ( Josephslegende )..almost 200 Lieder for Male and female voices......and in between 13 Opera´s . Sorry, name me one composer of the 20 th. Century who had such a creative period all thru to his long life? Just one ? oh and i don´t want to forget , that Richard Strauss was long before Schönberg , or Berg start composing 12 tone music .the one, who experimented with 12 tone Music in his Masterpiece ( Also sprach Zarathustra ) and last but not least , he was also one of the greatest Conductors ever faced the earth....With kind regards
@MrMichaelvier
Жыл бұрын
@@alger3041 i agree with you, about Gustav Mahler.They are both my favorite Composers. But I am also counting the Opera´s of Richard Strauss, not only his symphonic works 13 all together and of course, sadly Gustav Mahler died so early.
@retohofmann5878
Жыл бұрын
@@MrMichaelvier Thank you, but Glenn Gould is no reference for me. Also the quantity of the output a composer delivered. To me too Mahler is one of the greatest. I hope you can live with that. Making such a statement about R. Strauss is provoking some answers.
"Und die seele unbewacht" in Beim Schlafengehen - I never tire of hearing that line, especially from an artist of the stature of Ms Norman. What an incredible performance. Thanks very much for the upload. (Some lovely conducting too).
@retohofmann5878
Жыл бұрын
Yes, the other great interpretation of this songs is by the Schwarzkopf...and she mentioned in an interview that Sawallisch is among the greatest conductors she worked with.
Jeremy Brett's Desert Island Discs brought me here. What a wonder she and the orchestra created.
Aahh Goose bumps!! Thank you Jessye
The New York Times music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound", and wrote that "it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls."[1] 12:26 HOLY crap,hard to believe how she masterfully builds the violin solo & seems to craft a divine fluid motion of sound. wagner,strauss & the like who were more or less racists in their time would forget all their ideologies to thank this godgiven lady.
Une merveille!!!
And to think she was only 34 when she sang this concert!!
In dusky vaults I have long dreamt Of your trees and blue skies, Of your scents and the songs of birds. Now you lie revealed In glistening splendour, Flushed with light, Like a wonder before me. You know me again, You beckon tenderly to me; All of my limbs quiver From your blissful presence! 3:21 September Hermann Hesse The garden is mourning, The rain sinks coolly into the flowers. Summer shudders As it meets its end. Leaf upon leaf drops golden Down from the lofty acacia. Summer smiles, astonished and weak, In the dying garden dream. For a while still by the roses It remains standing, yearning for peace. Slowly it closes its eyes grown weary. 8:00 While Going to Sleep Hermann Hesse Now that the day has made me so tired, My dearest longings shall Be accepted kindly by the starry night Like a weary child. Hands, cease your activity, Head, forget all of your thoughts; All my senses now Will sink into slumber. And my soul, unobserved, Will float about on untrammeled wings In the enchanted circle of the night, Living a thousandfold more deeply. 13:11 In Twilight Joseph von Eichendorff We've gone through joy and crisis Together, hand in hand, And now we rest from wandering Above the silent land. The valleys slope around us, The air is growing dark, And dreamily, into the haze, There still ascend two larks. Come here, and let them flutter, The time for sleep is soon. We would not want to lose our way In this great solitude. O vast and silent peace! So deep in twilight ruddiness, We are so wander-weary - Could this perchance be death?
@carpediemsouriant5581
2 жыл бұрын
Merci !
I love this performance, but I once got a hold of a pirate recording of Flagstad doing the premier. It sounded like it was recorded further back in the house and the waves of sound that rolled into the auditorium from Flagstad was one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. It was a cassette and somewhere between the switch from CDs to MP3 I lost it. :-(
Lindo demais espetacular 👏🏿🎻❤️
Controle, dynamics, timbre...wow! Schwarzkopf is a challenge, but I think with the Abendrot Ms. Norman won.
WOW!
Sublime, aunque la parte inicial del cuarto lieder requiere mas fuerza sonora. Esa introducción tiene que ser como un torrente de musica. Una de las obras mas bellas de la historia de la musica.
Pure beauty 🍀Merci
Su grabación con Kurt Masur de las 4 últimas canciones es insuperable
this performance - Victoria Hall Geneva 19th September 1979
@rr7firefly
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you. I was wondering.
AFTER KIRSTEN FALGSTAD'S DEATH, JESSYE NORMAN IS THE UNIQUE DRAMATIC SOPRANO FOR WAGNER & STRAUSS REPERTOIRE!
15.00 will always be for Lula and Sailor. ❤️ ❤
La meilleure interprétation des derniers lieder à mes yeux. Pour la voix de Jessye Norman (quel souffle, au moins autant que Montserrat Caballe si ce n'est plus), mais pour la précision hautement exigeante du chef Wolgang Sawallisch également.
Wow. makes me weep.
@josephmosikili1902
Жыл бұрын
Me too...
At Liederdotnet a fine German English translation can be found. "Beim Schlafengehen" - such sublime words to leave by. Vale Herr Strauss .....
SUBLIME
@thefingerofgod69
3 жыл бұрын
This is the first word that came to mind. Sublime in all its 19th century understandings of the word.
No one like her ❤
Oh my.
there is a new version out with Lise Davidsen. everyone is making a fuss since she is 32 and has just come to her career and this piece as part of her repertoire. no one, however, not even Rene Fleming, can make these songs as fulsome and delicate at the same time as Ms, Norman did. No one.....
@milasmile9497
2 жыл бұрын
👌👍❤️
@georgesclermont1911
10 ай бұрын
René Fleming's is NOT a voice for Strauss especially not for the Last songs
I could try to describe it- but it would perhaps be inadequate..besides the marvelous voice and singing there is in terms of aesthetics something utterly beautiful in her facial expression - captivating.
To have been there!
Hermann Hesse ❤❤❤❤
It's wonderful, but it's recorded at such a low volume for me.
@eugenemayburd7728
4 жыл бұрын
Like as if the recording was made of behind a closed door. Why?
I echo all the superlatives about Jessye. Only one rival, Leontyne Price in Strauss' Salome.
Genius!
wow
She was at the peak of her powers here.after she lost weight she would never sing all four of the four last songs again. The first song is my favorite thing that she sang.
すごすぎます。 ジェシー 極楽感とはこのことぜ
The recording is terrible but Norman is sensational none the less. Superb
I have Norman singing these in a live performance by Celibidache in 1992, but this seems much earlier, can you give the date)
Belli
+Adagietto - Lot of thanks for additional information and links. :-)
no stereo version of this performance?
Goat!
"Beauty will redeem the world" Dostoyevsky
*And people still think Elizabeth Schwarzkopf's recording is better than this or any other version!* 🤣
oh wow, it's recorded live :D :D what a find on youtube - but what's with the sound-engineering :/ This is death and transfiguration at its best, but not The overture.
@Bulbophile
6 жыл бұрын
death and transfiguration overture? talkin about Tristan und Isolde? but that's Wagner....
Ethereal...
There's VERY few sopranos who can conquer these songs. They either are way too harsh or way too thin sounding. One needs a beautiful sound that isn't small yet isn't harsh and pushed sounding. It's a very very difficult balance. The lines in some of these songs rival that of Sophie in Rosenkavalier or Marschallin. Truly. Some of the most difficult lines.
@smurf902
2 ай бұрын
Jessye did it and did it well.
Jessye Norman's interpretation of Frühling is barely spring of Strauss, but spring of Mongolia gobi.
牛逼！
I think professional matchmakers will be a booming market soon
Only notes... there's no heart here, or very little, mostly from the orchestra...blandly played... Jessye does her thing very well...
AWH AbFab
P
To watch Jessye Norman sing is a bit of an eyesore. Great voice, but I prefer Gundula Janowitz, just to name one.
@fido3449
4 жыл бұрын
I always found her beautiful.
@willmatthews3155
4 жыл бұрын
then your are not really listening.
@rr7firefly
4 жыл бұрын
I would encourage you to delete your comment. It's just says way too much about you.
@eugenemayburd7728
4 жыл бұрын
Janowitz sings this beautifully. But Jessey is incomparable. Now this record is of so low volume that we loose almost a half of the proper sounding. Too bad nobody remastered the record to upgrade the level of volume. Another record, under Kurt Masur, is but a little bit louder anyway too low level. Sad.
@eugenemayburd7728
4 жыл бұрын
The same story with the Brahms' Alto Rhapsody record and many others. Barely can be heard.
Unfinished technique, his deep voice register is non-existent, without chest register. It's a shame, she plays the style well, but her singing technique is precarious.
@DLee594
3 жыл бұрын
How foolish.
@Bumblebeebeebee
2 жыл бұрын
Bit sad when the talentless try to judge the truly gifted
@serious7179
2 жыл бұрын
You know nothing about this splendor
This is a better conductor for these songs. Celibidache and Masur are so slow that I find them boring. As always, taste and preference are subjective. But she is not well served by those conductors. Sawallisch was Schwarzkopf’s favorite conductor because he closely followed the composer’s instructions. For sheer ecstasy, Flagstad with Furtwangler. Norman doesn’t have much nuance here but she has the requisite vocal power. Not much poetry.
@Bumblebeebeebee
3 ай бұрын
Blablabla
@walterbenjamin1386
2 ай бұрын
@@BumblebeebeebeeI’ve noticed you have quite a limited vocabulary.
I imagine what marvelous works would the Greats be inspired to write for Ms. Norman had she lived in their time..