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Strauss Buy New: $11.98 |
This recording of Strauss’s Four Last
Songs is superb - for the most part.
This is a gem of a disc. The Four Last
Songs are among the most beautiful
things Strauss ever wrote, and Elizabeth
Schwarzkopf gives a heartfelt and
poignant rendition of these apopemtic
lieder.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was one of those
singers whom one either loves or hates.
She was a “stylist,” who inflected every
phrase, every note in her urge to
communicate what she considered to be
the meaning of the text. Others feel
that the only thing she communicated was
her own need to impress people with her
ability to communicate, and I believe
she often forgot the difference between
art and artfulness. Be that as it may,
she was an outstanding Strauss singer,
and her performance of the Four Last
Songs, in particular, is legendary.
