Strauss' Four Last Songs: Im Abendrot (At Sunset)

Okay, this is for everyone but especially for my readers for whom Madonna and Celine are "artists" who walk on water...

One of my favorite pieces of music is Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, composed shortly before his death. The songs combined as a set after the composer's death, are for soprano and orchestra.

Of the four songs, my favorite is the last, "At Sunset."

In this YouTube clip, Renee Fleming is conducted by the crisp Christophe Eschenbach (who I swear looks like he is chewing gum in the beginning).

The text is about a couple walking hand in hand as sunset. Along the way they encounter flying larks (you'll hear the flutes trill when they appear in the text). At last they encounter the setting sun over the valley at the climax of the piece. If you ever wondered what a sunset would sound like in music, this is the piece that does it. Flemming's voice just resounds with golden warmth here -- listen for the German "abendrot" sung at the dynamic climax (though I like the studio recording she did with Eschenback was more effective here than in this live performance). The piece ends with this text:

O vast, tranquil peace!
so deep at sunset.
How weary we are of wandering -
Is this perhaps death?

We hear a quotation of Strauss' earlier work, Death and Transfiguration, as well as a return of the trills in the flutes...perhaps the souls of our couple freed in death?

Plug in your earpods, seal away distractions, and be transformed (and curse the audience member who starts to clap before the last note has died away!).

Enjoy.