Strauss: Four Last Songs / Signature Roles at the Met Opera [2 CD Limited Edition] Renée Fleming

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CD - Special Edition

  • Release Date: 09/16/2008
  • 2 Disc Set
  • Sales Rank: 20,464
  • Label: DECCA
  • UPC: 028948013203

Listener Rating: (3 ratings)

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Track List
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Strauss: Four Last Songs / Signature Roles at the Met Opera [2 CD Limited Edition]

Disc 1
1LISTENVier letzte Lieder (Four
2LISTENVier letzte Lieder (Four
3LISTENVier letzte Lieder (Four
4LISTENVier letzte Lieder (Four
5LISTENAriadne auf Naxos, opera,
6LISTENAriadne auf Naxos, opera,
7LISTENAriadne auf Naxos, opera,
8LISTENVerführung ("Der Tag, der
9LISTENFreundliche Vision ("Nich
10LISTENWinterweihe ("In diesen W
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Disc 2
1LISTENEugene Onegin, opera, Op.
2LISTENRusalka, opera, B. 203 (O
3LISTENOtello, opera: Piangea ca
4LISTENThaïs, opera in 3 acts: A
5LISTENCapriccio, opera, Op. 85

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Special Features:

  • The second disc includes highlights from Fleming's signature roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera. These scenes are drawn from the soprano's Decca discography.

  • Read our Renée Fleming interview in the Barnes & Noble Review

    • About this Artist

    Editorial Reviews

    This is the second time Renée Fleming has recorded Strauss' "Four Last Songs," and she gives a serene, luminous performance. One of the glories of her handling of the songs is the variety of vocal colors she brings to them. For instance, "Frühling" begins with a throaty duskiness that gives way to silky gossamer as the poetic imagery lifts from "somber shadows" to "blue skies." The details of Fleming's interpretation are always rooted in a sure sense of the songs' larger musical trajectory. She has performed this work more than any other; besides having a voice and temperament ideally suited to the songs, she brings a career's worth of experience singing them, giving her both interpretive freedom and deeply considered insight. In the program notes, she is quoted as saying, "When I started learning the epic "Four Last Songs," it soon became clear to me that, no matter how well the songs were sung, it was the overall pacing of the piece, combined with the quality of the orchestral playing, that really shaped it." She has stellar collaborators in Christian Thielemann and the Münchner Philharmoniker. Thielemann's reading and the orchestra's playing are luxuriant and ecstatic. A small quibble: the songs should have been placed at the end, rather than at the beginning of the album; the radiance of the performance needs to be followed by silence. In the remaining selections, which include excerpts from "Ariadne auf Naxos" and "Die Ägyptische Helena" and various songs, Fleming sings with no less vocal beauty, but the music itself, as lovely as much of it is, overall seems anticlimactic following the sublime songs. The warmth of Decca's sound matches that of the performances.

    The second CD, Signature Roles at the Met Opera, is a reissue of recordings Fleming made for Decca over the years, with a variety of conductors and orchestras. The title is misleading; the fine print reads that these are "the soprano's most acclaimed roles, many performed at the Met." Decca doesn't identify the source of the performances, so it requires some sleuthing to figure out when and under what circumstances the recordings were made. The selection from "Thaïs" with Yves Abel leading Orchestra National Bordeaux Aquitaine is taken from a complete 2000 performance of the opera; the selections from "Eugene Onegin" and "Rusalka" and "Otello," with Georg Solti leading the London Symphony Orchestra, are from the 1996 collection Signatures-Great Opera Scenes; and the final scene from "Capriccio," with Christoph Eschenbach leading the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, is taken from a 1998 album Strauss Heroines. These are in fact some of Fleming's most characteristic roles from the late- and post-Romantic eras, and in each, her velvety voice and emotional and dramatic focus are on superb display. Here, closing the CD with the tender, bittersweet, ambiguous finale to "Capriccio" is a brilliant artistic decision. This collection should be of interest to any Fleming fan who doesn't already have the previous releases of these performances, and it makes a terrific introduction for anyone who wants to get to know her work. Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide



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    Customer Reviews

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    • Ratings: 3Reviews: 1

    'Habe Dank!'by Anonymous

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    September 22, 2008: This very generous two disc release has so many positive aspects that it hopefully will manage to garner the attention of music lovers around the world despite the negative comments being published in some quarters. Fame of an artist is accompanied by that very public eye and ear that references previous performances and recordings of repeated works as being superior to a new issue, and while that may gather the ire of some, it is simply part of the joy of encountering new performances: some boo, some shout Brava! Ren&#233 e Fleming is a bona fide star of the opera and concert stage, a physically beautiful woman with a soaring, rich, intelligent voice who manages to inhabit a number of roles that she makes her own - be those her signature Strauss roles or her favorite 'Rusalka' and 'Tha&#239 s'. For the opening songs on this 2008 live recording from Munich in collaboration with the superb Strauss conductor Christian Thielemann at the helm of the Munich Philharmonic Fleming offers the Strauss 'Four Last Songs'. Yes, they are different from her 1995 recording but thirteen years have passed and for this listener the depth of character in the poetry of these gorgeous songs is finer and the voice remains one of the few truly Straussian soprano voices before the public today. Plus, after the 'Four Last Songs' we are gifted with three excerpts form 'Ariadne auf Naxos' and these are impeccably performed as are the four songs that follow and the 'Zweite Brautnacht!' from Strauss' 'Die &#196 gyptische Helena' that conclude the 'concert'. Fleming and Thielemann are as superb a team for Strauss as one could imagine. The second CD on the package is called 'Signature Roles at the Met Opera' and these include Tchaikovsky's 'Letter Scene' form 'Eugen Onegin, Dvorak's 'O Silver moon' aria from 'Rusalka', and Verdi's 'Willow song/Ave Maria' from 'Otello' - with Fleming accompanied by Sir Georg Solti and the London Symphony Orchestra 'Ah! Je suis seule...' from Massenet's 'Tha&#239 s' with Yves Abel conducting the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitane and the 'Mondscheinmusik' from Strauss' 'Capriccio' joined by Walter Berry and with Christoph Eschenbach and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. This is Fleming's realm and to have each of these special interpretations on one recording is a gift. Ren&#233 e Fleming is an extraordinary artist, a true diva, and this collection is a rich one. 'Habe dank!' Highly recommended. Grady Harp