One journey, two very different destinations...

This winter, as ever, we have been treated to yet more accounts of Schubert's Beckettian song-cycle Winterreise . And I have no doubt th...

In praise of Florian Boesch

Anyone interested in Lieder will not be surprised at this post. But anyone who has not yet bought Hyperion Records' new disc, Der Wander...

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...