Vier letzte Lieder

Richard Strauss wrote songs throughout his life—his wife, Pauline, was a soprano and the female voice was never far from his creative imagination. In September 1948, when Richard was 84 and Pauline was 85, he composed what would become known as his Four Last Songs. Scored for soprano and orchestra, they set three poems by Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) plus a fourth by Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857). Although Strauss never specified their exact sequence, the order in which they’re usually performed suggests an autobiographical narrative from a great composer in the evening of his career. Premiered in 1950, nine months after Strauss’ death, these four songs have come to be cherished as some of the loveliest and most touching last words of any great composer. The restless surges of “Frühling” (Spring) reach back to the spring passions of Wagner’s Die Walküre. In “September”, a blossoming garden trembles on the brink of autumn and dissolution. Strauss caresses the velvety stillness of “Beim Schlafengehen” (Going to Sleep) with a solo violin, as the poet imagines the soul soaring free into the night. And, finally, in “Im Abendrot” (In the Sunset), an old couple gazes at the setting sun as two larks soar above them into the gathering darkness—Strauss’ last farewell to a lifelong love affair and a whole lost world of German art.