Musical Highlights
Every month, we provide more information on special programs that we think will bring you great enjoyment. Click on a link below to view informaton on that program. Also check the program pages section of the 2MBS-FM Fine Music magazine for more daily highlights.
February
At Sunset
Thursday 16 at 2pm
Richard Strauss felt that the poem Im Abendrot (At Sunset) by Joseph von Eichendorff, had a special meaning for him. It seemed to him to epitomise the love which he and his wife Pauline had for each other and the companionship that they had shared for so many years. It begins: ‘We have gone through sorrow and joy hand in hand; Now we can rest from our wandering above the quiet land’. He set this poem for soprano and orchestra along with three poems of Herman Hesse, Frühling (Spring), September and Beim Schlafengehen (Going to sleep). They became known as his Four Last Songs and were his final completed works, composed in 1948 when he was 84. Sadly Strauss did not live to hear the premiere of these stunningly beautiful songs, given at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 22 May 1950 by the soprano Kirsten Flagstad accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler.
As late as 1954 the three Hesse songs were still listed as a group, separate from the earlier Eichendorff setting and there is actually no indication that Strauss conceived these songs as a unified set. The title Four Last Songs was given to them by Ernst Roth, friend of Strauss and chief editor of Boosey & Hawkes. He also placed them in the order in which they are most often sung: Frühling, September, Beim Schlafengehen, Im Abendrot.
These songs appear to have been very personal to Strauss with all four songs having prominent horn parts recalling that his father Franz Strauss was a noted horn player. Supported by this brass accompaniment, the beautiful soaring melodies of the soprano vocal line pay tribute to his wife who was a famous soprano.
The songs deal with death and were written shortly before Strauss himself died. At the end of Im Abendrot Strauss quotes from his tone poem of 60 years earlier, Death and Transfiguration. The ‘transfiguration theme’, a six-note phrase, symbolizes the fulfillment of the soul into death and, instead of the typical Romantic defiance, these Four Last Songs are suffused with a sense of calm, acceptance, and completeness.
These glorious songs may be heard in a superb performance by Jessye Norman in Only Rosettes. – Elaine Siversen
Opera Revived
Wednesday 29 at 8pm
‘The 1790s mark the supreme mastery of Haydn’s work’, writes Karl Geiringer. ‘The journeys to London bring the climax of his instrumental composition, the years after his return the peak of his vocal composition. With regard to style, no essential changes from that of the eighties may be observed but the fertility of invention is even greater. Added to this is a certain inclination towards romanticism, which shows that even at the age of sixty, Haydn still retained his sensitiveness to artistic trends of the time.’ He goes on to say that the 12 London symphonies are highlights in symphonic literature and that his string quartets are characterised by a touch of romanticism. Progressing into the nineties, we find Haydn’s great choral works: the oratorios, The Seasons and The Creation and four of the last six masterpiece Masses. A little known work, composed by Haydn in the early part of this very productive period, was an opera, or more correctly, a Dramma per musica called L’anima del filosofo or Orfeo ed Euridice. It was neglected for 160 years, its first performance taking place in 1951. The recording by the Academy of Ancient Music directed by Christopher Hogwood with Cecilia Bartoli as Euridice and Uwe Heiman as Orfeo, will be broadcast in At the Opera. – ES
Continuing Series
Only Rosettes – Thursdays 2 and 16 at 2pm
Mozart and the Piano Concerto – Mondays 6, 13, 20, 27 at 3pm
Kawai Keyboard Series – Friday 10 at 2pm
Legendary Met Performances – Wednesdays 8 and 15 at 8pm