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Whistle Stopper - Strauss: Four Last Songs / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
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List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $7.31
Your Save: $ 4.67 ( 39% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028944742220
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 1996-01-23
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Four Last, near best
Comment: There are many fine versions of Strauss's Four last Songs. This is among the best. Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic have a special affinity for Strauss and Janowitz sings these songs with unadorned beauty.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Middle of the road Strauss
Comment: The Four Last Lieder recorded by Janowitz and Karajan have always raised controversy. Some listeners admire their perfection (orchestral, at least), but Janowitz's singing has often been criticized for being more pretty than meaningful. I cannot but agree - listen to either of the Schwarzkopf studio recordings (there is also a live one with Karajan available) to measure all you have been missing out with Janowitz! These poems depict the retrospective look of a woman upon her experience of life as she approaches the end of the path - and all that Janowitz ever does here is clinical, detached singing, almost devoid of all humanity.
Karajan's Metamorphosen have often been praised for their orchestral beauty - but to be fair he here mainly uses this work as a demonstration of orchestral virtuosity and beauty of tone from the BPO's string section. His subsequent 1980s recording is much more human and telling, to say nothing of his deeply moving first recording with the VPO for EMI in 1946 - the first recording ever of the Metamorphosen. The second one was Furtwangler in October 1947 (a surprisingly flowing account from this conductor, at 23'), and both recordings along with the ones of Klemperer and Kempe on EMI glow with tragedy and a fatal sense of loss.
Karajan's achievement in Death and Transfiguration is more convincing. At 27' this is one of the longest recorded performances ever, but one that does not lack contrast (the recollection of past events is a trifle self-indulging though). I wouldn't want to be without Klemperer though.
This CD will probably attract many newcomers (which one with Karajan and the BPO wouldn't?), but it would really be very sad if they only knew the Vier letzte Lieder and Metamorphosen through these recordings. The meaning of these works is quite simply not conveyed here.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Transfigured Strauss
Comment: There's a reason why so many people love this disc--no one knows of a more gorgeous rendering of the Metamorphosen, Tod und Verklarung is sublime, the Four Last Songs are right up there with Schwarzkopf/Szell and Norman/Masur and Karajan, the BPO and DG engineers with burnished analog sound were never more in sync.
Rarely do you have such perfection of composer, conductor, musicians and the technicians that bring it all onto vinyl and then compact disc.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Four Last Songs
Comment: Of all the Straussians who have sung the composer's autumnal pieces, I think the best of the lot is Gundula Janowitz. Her ethereal, diaphanous, and floating voice fits these songs perfectly, and her natural sense of expression conveys that aura of old age, wisdom, and reflection radiated by these songs. Although hers is the kind of voice that wouldn't have the deep, low notes for Frühling, the rest of the songs sound like pearls falling off a string. In September and Beimschlafengehen, she has no rivals, and her Im Abendrot has that reflective sense of retirement that only she can bring to this glorious music. That said, I think that in addition to Janowitz, you must hear Lisa della Casa and Soile Isokoski in these songs. Janowitz is partnered by the orchestral forces of THE Straussian conductor, Herbert von Karajan. His feeling for the poetry in these pieces is unrivaled by any other conductor except Karl Böhm, and the Berlin forces play a ravishing account of this music. The balance is just right, and Karajan caresses the orchestral forces to a soft cushion of sound for Janowitz. All the resignment and wisdom of Strauss' final masterpieces can be found in this rendition of the music. The Metamorphosen and the Tod und Verklärung that precede these are also played with the finesse and the smoothness of the Berliners. Bravo!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Beautiful!
Comment: Gundula Janowitz did an amazing job on the Four Last Songs by Strauss. Her tone is so beautiful with clarity, and her voice is so expressive. She also does not over sing these delicate songs which I heard oversung, and it ruins each piece. Of course, Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic are amazing and perfect for Richard Strauss. The violin solo in the "third" of the four last songs is amazing and heartbreaking. You dont even have to be a Strauss fan to love this cd. Anybody who loves music has to love Strauss's Four Last Songs which can be described as some of the most beautiful music written.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Gundula Janowitz had a very beautiful voice that critics like to describe as "creamy," whatever that means. Strauss had a life-long love affair with the soprano voice. He even married one--not just the voice, the whole woman, of course. His Four Last Songs constitute his dying tribute, and they are probably the most hedonistically gorgeous vocal works in existence. Herbert vo Karajan was a Strauss specialist, as was Janowitz, and together they contrive to perform the songs about as perfectly as they ever have been. The couplings, two orchestral works from the beginning and end of Strauss's career, are quite appropriate: the last of the Four Songs quotes the "Transfiguration" theme from the tone poem. --David Hurwitz
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