Eloquence Classics

That Richard Strauss loved and understood the soprano voice is an inescapable fact. He was married to soprano, Pauline de Ahna and thus had a living laboratory for his song-writing. Even after Pauline had retired from the stage, he continued to favour sopranos in his operas and other vocal compositions. And sopranos repaid him with wonderful performances.

Lisa Della Casa had only fleeting contacts with Strauss but she inherited the great tradition and after his death, she became the pre-eminent singer of his music in the 1950s and 1960s. She made the first recording of his ‘Four Last Songs’ and, although many versions have jostled for our attention since then, her achievement has not been surpassed. She had the inestimable advantages of the Vienna Philharmonic and an experienced Strauss interpreter, Karl Böhm, as her partners. She and her conductor also came to the songs without preconceptions: they looked at the music and deduced from Strauss’s markings that it should not be performed too slowly. As a result, they brought a freshness to songs.

A rare recital disc recorded for Decca brings immaculate performances of music by Schubert, Brahms, Wolf and Strauss. Her purity of utterance and lack of sentimentality make for a mesmerising experience. Lisa Della Casa was in some respects a throwback to the pre-war Lieder interpreters who did not feel the necessity to underline every word and trusted their listeners to use some imagination. We even hear her employ some old-fashioned portamento. But her clarity of enunciation and deep understanding of the German texts are models for younger singers.