Richard Strauss was a boy of six when he wrote his first song, and an old man of 84 when he completed his last. In the intervening years he became hugely successful as a composer of symphonies, songs and operas, and as a master orchestrator and conductor.
But it was the marriage of music and poetry – especially with the sound of the soprano voice in mind – to which he always returned, and his gloriously serene and transcendent Four Last Songs, written a year before his death, was to be his epitaph.
In 1948, Strauss felt himself slowing down. There was a new world order, he was old, and he felt tainted by the tribulations of the Second World War.
However, he was not yet ready to put down his pen – his imagination had been caught by a piece by the lyric poet Josef von Eichendorff. The title is “Im Abendrot” (In the Evening Glow), and he set to work turning it into an orchestral song.
It was to be the final song in the set that became known as the Four Last Songs, and within five months it was followed by Spring, September and Going To Sleep.
Here now is Renee Fleming to sing “Im Abendrot” for you:
