R. Strauss’ “Four Last Songs”
Notes by TŌN trumpet player Giulia Rath
As a trumpet player, performing Richard Strauss’ music is always an exciting experience. His compositions, most notably his tone poems and operas, often feature dazzling trumpet parts that are challenging yet extremely rewarding. His Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), however, show a different kind of artistry by the composer. Composed in 1948 as his last completed set of works, these songs, written for soprano and orchestra, are remarkably intimate and can be seen as Strauss’ musical farewell to the world.
The cycle, which was not conceived by Strauss as such but rather put together posthumously, begins with “Frühling” (“Spring”), which is Strauss’ celebration of young life. The soprano showcases soaring vocal lines and the flutes evoke birdsong.
The mood shifts in the second song, “September”, as the tone of the piece becomes more reflective. Strauss paints a picture of a fading summer garden with his lush harmonies and soaring melodic lines, and the song concludes with a gorgeous horn solo.
The third song of the cycle, “Beim Schlafengehen” (“Going to Sleep”), delves more into the theme of approaching death. The music never fights the inevitability of death, but rather accepts it in a calm and serene manner. One of my favorite moments of the piece, maybe in all of music, comes between the second and third verse of the song where the solo violin portrays the rising of the soul in flight.
The last song of the cycle, “Im Abendrot” (“In the Sunset Glow”), begins with the orchestra depicting a sunset and ends with the soprano’s question: “Ist dies etwa der Tod?” (“Is this perhaps death?”). The orchestra responds with a quotation from Strauss’ tone poem Death and Transfiguration, a piece he wrote 60 years earlier as a young man. As the song fades out, two flutes appear, portraying two larks that we already encountered earlier in the piece. Now the two larks disappear into the distance to close out this musical and personal journey.