Eric Koch for Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Richard Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder isn’t programmed as often as one might expect, but this season we are getting it twice locally. Last fall the New York Philharmonic presented a sadly pallid Miah Persson, while next month Asmik Grigorian will offer her controversial reading at Carnegie Hall with the visiting Cleveland Orchestra.

Four years ago, Trove Thursday offered ten live recordings of the valedictory work sung by Kirsten Flagstad, Evelyn Lear, Carol Vaness, Ileana Cotrubas, Grace Bumbry, Mara Zampieri, Waltraud Meier, Christine Goerke, Jonas Kaufmann and Persson. Today Chris’s Cache offers ten more (once again in chronological order): Sena Jurinac, Gundula Janowitz, Jessye Norman, Roberta Alexander, Edith Mathis, Helen Donath, Malin Byström, Christiane Karg, Jacquelyn Wagner, and Corinne Winters.

Devoted fans of the VLL may wonder about the inclusion of Jurinac, Janowitz, and Norman as their commercial studio recordings are among the very best known. However, I thought some listeners might be curious to hear live performances by the trio. Jurinac’s arrives seven years after her 1951 version (though I love Sena, I’ve never been a big fan of it) with Fritz Busch conducting, while both Janowitz and Norman’s recordings precede their studio efforts; the former with Herbert van Karajan occurred in 1974, while the Norman-Kurt Masur collaboration came in 1982.

When I originally gathered these, I hadn’t included one by Mathis, but since the Swiss soprano passed away earlier this week just before her 87th birthday, I thought it appropriate to fold into the mix a late-career interpretation by the noted Sophie and Zdenka.

Since I heard Donath perform these songs in 1990 with the Cincinnati Symphony, I wanted to include a memento of her. Byström had to cancel last week’s premiere of Die Liebe der Danae in Munich, so presenting her 2018 VLL seemed like a good consolation prize.

A recent curiosity is Karg’s version which is accompanied only by a solo harp! Wagner and Winters represent the latest generation of American sopranos doing these Strauss songs.

I could have easily included ten more!

Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder

Sena Jurinac
Conductor: Rudolf Schwarz
London 1958

Gundula Janowitz
Conductor: Sergiu Celibidache
Rome 1969

Jessye Norman
Conductor: Franz-Paul Decker
Melbourne 1981

Roberta Alexander
Conductor: Adam Gatehouse
Amsterdam 1982

Edith Mathis
Conductor: Marcello Viotti
Saarbrücken 1995

Helen Donath
Conductor: Ivan Törzs
Mecklenburg 2000

Malin Byström
Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard
London 2018

Christiane Karg
Harpist: Anneleen Lenaerts
Würzburg 2023

Jacquelyn Wagner
Conductor: Pablo González
Madrid 2023

Corinne Winters
Conductor: Jakub Hrusa
Bamberg 2023

Each VLL can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.

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