Day 24 — Morgen

And so the Richard Strauss Lieder Advent Calendar comes to a close, albeit an open-ended one. Behind the last window is the 1894 Lied 'M...

Day 23 — Weihnachtslied

Strauss was apparently around six years old when he wrote this setting of the 18th-century poet Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart's ...

Day 22 — Im Abendrot (from the Four Last Songs)

The last of the Four Last Songs sets ‘Im Abendrot’ by Eichendorff, a poet to whom Strauss had first turned in 1876 for the texts of his two...

Day 21 — Die Frauen sind oft fromm und still

This is the final song from Strauss's 1887–88 Schlichte Wiesen , comprising five settings of Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn's poetry. Whil...

Day 20 – Blauer Sommer

As well as writing songs to mark his own marriage – the renowned Op. 27 set comprising ' Ruhe, meine Seele ', ' Cäcilie ', ...

Day 19 — Winterliebe

Strauss wrote two 'winter' songs, published together in his 1900 Fünf Lieder Op. 48. Unlike 'Winterweihe' (the fourth in th...

Day 18 — Gesänge des Orients

Strauss was no stranger to Orientalism, not only within Salome (1905), of course, but also in the less celebrated Die ägyptische Helena (192...

Day 17 — Ruhe, meine Seele!

Strauss's 'Ruhe, meine Seele!' is set apart by its staggeringly ingenious simplicity. Nothing is so restful as the slow but cert...