Strauss: Four Last Songs

by Rachel Willis-Sorensen

Overview

Young soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen gained a good deal of notice with her eponymously titled first album, perhaps inspiring her to take a bold step with her second: there is absolutely no shortage of recordings of Richard Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder ("Four Last Songs"), but Willis-Sorensen entered the field with a new one in 2023. She landed on classical best-seller charts, and it is no wonder; her readings of the songs are fresh and powerful. There are many attractive and innovative features, beginning right off the bat with the rather downbeat approach to Fruehling ("Spring"), No. 1. The soprano says that the song is "full of desperation. It's the hope that spring maybe will come, but there's the fear that it won't. It's not 'look at the pretty flowers.'" The song, with its two-octave range, is only deceptively simple, and Willis-Sorensen is on top of it throughout. She has a lot of help from conductor Andris Nelsons, leading the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, with whom she has worked closely in the past; the entire set shows close cooperation between the pair. Another draw is the pairing of the Vier letzte Lieder with the final scene of Strauss' final opera, Capriccio, Op. 85, another instance of the gorgeous writing for soprano voice of which Strauss was capable. Here, too, Nelsons' orchestral work is passionate and arresting. A noteworthy entry in the canon of Strauss recordings. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	03/10/2023
Label:	Sony Classical
UPC:	0194399217221
Rank:	71679

Tracks

1. Vier Letzte Lieder TrV 296~No. 1: Frühling
2. Vier Letzte Lieder TrV 296~No. 2: September
3. Vier Letzte Lieder TrV 296~No. 3: Beim Schlafengehen
4. Vier Letzte Lieder TrV 296~No. 4: Im Abendrot
5. Capriccio: Final Scene TrV 279~Mondscheinmusik. Andante con moto
6. Capriccio: Final Scene TrV 279~Wo ist mein Bruder?
7. Capriccio: Final Scene TrV 279~Kein andres, das mir so im Herzen loht
8. Capriccio: Final Scene TrV 279~Ihre Liebe schl¿¿gt mir entgegen
9. Capriccio: Final Scene TrV 279~Du Spiegelbild der verliebten Madeleine

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Rachel Willis-Sorensen   Primary Artist,Soprano (Vocal)
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra   Orchestra
Sebastian Pilgrim   Bass (Vocal)
Andris Nelsons   Conductor

Technical Credits

Friedemann Engelbrecht   Engineer,Recording Producer
Clemens Krauss   Text
Joseph (Karl Benedikt) Freiherr von Eichendorff   Text
Alexander Buhr   Executive Producer
Michael Hamburger   Text Translation
Olivia Kahler   Photography
Richard Strauss   Text,Composer
Hermann Hesse   Text
Walter Legge   Text Translation
Roger Pines   Liner Notes