If I Could Choose Only One Work By...RICHARD STRAUSS

It Would Have To Be...Four Last Songs
Many of you called this one, and I can only agree. It's the apotheosis of Strauss' writing for the voice. Period.

The List So Far:
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations

[robertjones]

Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks. It's an opera, a farce, and a film noir, all within the span of 15 minutes. Richard Strauss was - along with Wagner - the composer who spawned 100 Hollywood composers. All the heavy hitters - Steiner, Waxman, Herrmann, Rozsa, Newman, E. Bernstein, Goldsmith, Williams - stood upon Strauss's giant shoulders.

[peterboer]

Dave, great choice! Jessye Norman and Kurt Masur with the Gewandhaus Orchestra is sumptuous beautiful.

[dmntuba]

The tone poems are big, grand, amazing, and blow your socks off.
The 4 last songs blow yout socks off by bring you into his world and touches touches our soul....so GREAT pick👍

[tom]

For me it has to be an opera and so it has to be Ariadne auf Naxos. It has all the soaring lyricism of the Four Last Songs, all the transparency of orchestration, the aching beauty, but there's also the leavening of comedy, that miraculous way Strauss brings together an array of oppositions, the high and low of life, idealism and realism, music and speech, the tragic and comic--all the complicated, messy, beauty of life gets fitted into the opera, all interwoven and mingled to exhilarating effect. NYT critic Zachary Wolfe put it memorably when he wrote that "it is a piece, just as opera is a genre, about polarities brought into vibrating equilibrium by being made to inhabit the same space . . . No other work so well captures how opera, at its best, is both of the world and a rapturous heightening of it. Time and again, Strauss almost off-handedly swirls his orchestra into another sphere, conjuring, out of the clatter and babble, a sudden shockingly full rush of feeling that tingles the skin." Exactly.

[SimonLeBonBelge]

I completely agree with everything you said about Strauss & the 4 Last Songs. Thank you.

[robertdandre]

my favorite work of richard strauss is the alpensinfonie....symphony which propels us to high altitude it must be said.magnificent work, full of contrast, which smells good, with a full and colorful orchestration....my two versions. ...? andré prévin with philadelphia....and karajan and the berlin philharmonic

[gervaischouinard]

I agree about Vier letzte Lieder. Amongst it's orchestra repertoire, it would choose Metamorphosen, absolutely gorgeous.

[BittersweetMoods]

At Sunset is my favorite of the Four Last Songs. Metamorphosen is my favorite Strauss piece.

[francoisjoubert]

As much as I love the 4LL, my gut choice was Salome. I have seen the same amounts of Salomes as 4LL and the Salome’s always came off better. Those long high floating notes in 4LL, like “und die Seele unbewacht”. And Salome gives a whole Opera company a chance to perform - even clapped out old mezzo’s and tenors. And you even get a small tone poem in the middle! And dancing, and sex, and an execution! Not to mention work for all the Regieteater people! And the opportunity for singing actresses to sing their lungs out!

[GG-cupg]

One work for Poulenc: The piano concerto. Thanks to you Dave for making me pay real attention to Poulenc. In the last two years I’ve listened to much of his stuff on repeat. I think the piano concerto is very representative - the mood swings and genre switches and a beautiful stream of elegant melodies.

[HassoBenSoba]

I agree that "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" is mighty tempting....but you managed to resist. LR

[michaelmurray]

Yes! The perfect choice with so many great versions.

[jonathandore]

Great choice. It was a favourite of my mother's (as well as mine) and I played the third song at her funeral.

[barryguerrero]

"Alpensinfonie" for me. But it has to have really good horns, and a conductor who doesn't rush the summit moments. The climax of the 'storm' needs to be strong as well. I find it interesting that starts and ends in minor.

[iankemp]

I'm not a great fan of Strauss in general, but I find the Four Last Songs wonderful, striking and touching, so I fully agree. Also Sprach Zarathustra always seems to me to struggle to live up to its opening minute - like Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, but more so.

[GG-cupg]

Great choice. Sometimes peer pressure is best given into.

[pianoronald]

My favourite recording of the „Vier letzte Lieder“ is Soile Isokoski‘s.

[leestamm]

With a lot of wonderful music in various veins and moods of happy, sad, angry, triumphant and reflective, this is a decidedly tough choice. However, if I could have only one, it would be Till Eulenspiegel. A big orchestra playing a fun and challenging piece of delightful, episodic ear candy. Quintessential happy Richard Strauss.

[willduffay]

Yes, you cannot disagree with that, and it's one of the most beautiful, affecting and effective pieces of all time. If I were looking for a big lump of orchestral Strauss to fill those dull desert island days it'd have to be the Alpine Symphony (or ASZ, or Tod und, or Ein Heldenleben, dammit there's too much!). And as for an opera....well i just don't where to start! Der Rosenkavalier, I guess.

[MD-mdth]

I agree with your choice. I think it is fitting to choose Four Last Songs since in a way they are the anti-Strauss. Grandiose in their deep emotion and beauty, and totally lacking the grandiose gestures that characterize so much of Strauss’s typical masterpieces.