This final installment in Hyperion's cycle of the complete songs of Richard Strauss contains a miscellany of material, with the expected positive and negative results. The best news comes at the end, with the inclusion of Strauss' orchestral Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) in piano transcriptions by Max Wolff and Ernst Roth (the latter in the really sublimely done Im Abendrot, which, if you sample the final pages, might rightly persuade you to shell out for the whole album). Soprano Rebecca Evans is equal to the ...
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This final installment in Hyperion's cycle of the complete songs of Richard Strauss contains a miscellany of material, with the expected positive and negative results. The best news comes at the end, with the inclusion of Strauss' orchestral Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) in piano transcriptions by Max Wolff and Ernst Roth (the latter in the really sublimely done Im Abendrot, which, if you sample the final pages, might rightly persuade you to shell out for the whole album). Soprano Rebecca Evans is equal to the profound demands of these resigned, retrospective songs, and pianist Roger Vignoles, who also contributes elegant booklet notes, captures the striking shades of the original orchestral versions. The bulk of the album features tenor Nicky Spence, who holds up well in Strauss' more Wagnerian moments. The highlight may be An Sie, Op. 43, No. 1, an ingenious setting of the proto-free verse of Friedrich Klopstock that Spence connects with sensitively. Elsewhere there are a lot of songs that...
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