Strauss - Don Juan · 4 Letzte Lieder · Tod und Verklärung / Voigt · NYP · Masur
Here is a portrait of the composer in his buoyant youth and his  melancholy old age. Strauss wrote the tone poems in his twenties, the songs  60 years later.Don Juan, in a bright major key, bursts with vigor,  confidence, and exultant passion, but ends with a short, subdued, spooky coda in the minor.Death and Transfigurationopens in dark minor and ends in radiant major; along the way, the music dreams, sings, rebels, soars to an ecstatic climax, and subsides into serene resignation. This is death envisioned by a young man: idealized, remote, unreal. The songs, on the other hand, are suffused with an old man's premonition of death's inexorable reality; evoking fragrant gardens and trilling birds, the music ends in peaceful acceptance. Masur, in this live recording, inspires his splendid players to unbridled, superb performances; they revel in Strauss's glittering, luscious orchestration with ravishing solos and a glorious sound. Deborah Voigt's soprano, with its shimmering radiance and vibrant intensity, can blend into or soar above the orchestra; a renowned Strauss interpreter whose effort here compares favorably with the legendary account byElizabeth Schwarzkopf, Voigt approaches the songs in a deeply felt, simple, direct, and outgoing manner, and she gives the composer's arching melodies a riveting, thrilling ecstasy.--Edith Eisler