Continuing the Strauss Advent series, which will feature one of the Four Last Songs each Sunday, we move on to 'September', second in the sequence as published by Boosey and Hawkes, but actually the final song written by Strauss, on 20 September 1948, just under a year before his death. In Hesse's text, summer is fading and the rain begins to fall, described by fleet descending patterns in the opening bars. The song vacillates between major and minor, turning to the latter on 'trauert' (mourning) and 'schauert' (shuddering) in the first verse, indicating that something more finite is at hand than just the passing of the seasons. 'Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt' triggers a particularly beguiling vocalise, which becomes one of the motivic mainstays of the second part of the song, as summer truly ebbs to its close. Beautifully personified by Hesse, it is afforded a heartbreaking finale, slowly closing its eyes, before a solo horn – Strauss's father's instrument – calls, as if from afar.
Click here to listen to Jessye Norman's superb performance.
The painting is 'Herbst Abend' by Ferdinand Hodler.
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