Renée Fleming - Strauss Heroines

Renée Fleming's voice, with its balanced blend of youthful luster and full-blossomed maturity, is ideally suited to Richard Strauss's music. Her recording of the composer's "Four Last Songs," with Christoph Eschenbach conducting, is among the best ever. Soprano and conductor are together again for this ravishing new album of scenes from Strauss's operas. Fleming imbues each of these three heroines with dignity, grace, and depth of character. The success of her portrayals is aided considerably by colleagues like up-and-coming mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (an impetuous yet elegant Octavian in "Der Rosenkavalier") and soprano Barbara Bonney (superb in both "Rosenkavalier" and "Arabella"). Eschenbach deserves special mention. Under his direction, the Vienna Philharmonic provides an expressive emotional subtext to every dramatic situation. There's nothing routine about his music-making. The radically slow tempo he chooses for the final trio of "Der Rosenkavalier" is a musical risk that pays off handsomely, thanks to the singers' superb musicianship and breathtaking technical control. Never has this scene sounded so rapturous. Even if Fleming's interpretations of the Marschallin's monologue in "Der Rosenkavalier" and the final scene of "Capriccio" don't erase memories of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's heartbreakingly poignant accounts, this recording has a radiance and profound beauty all its own. Andrew Farach-Colton

1 Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
2 Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
3 Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
4 Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
5 Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
6 Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
7 Arabella, Op. 79: Ich dan
8 Capriccio, Op. 85: Interl
9 Capriccio, Op. 85: Morgen

INFO

Links: Part1, Part2, Part3