Written by Teresa Ingrilli (Core Artist - Soprano)
Strauss’ Four Last Songs is an absolute dream of mine to perform.
It is an honour to debut this with Forest Collective. And a fair warning, this blog entry will be a Jessye Norman fan feast.
To express what singing Strauss’ Four Last Songs means to me, I’d like to take you on a little journey on how I came to be known by my peers as a Strauss soprano.
I was introduced to German Lieder before my university days. Lieder is German for ‘songs’. It’s its own genre of art song. It’s known for its poetry, often exploring themes like nature, beauty, love and death.
Richard Strauss is one of the great Late Romantic composers of the 19th and 20th centuries and is no stranger to Lieder and these themes. I came across Strauss’ Lieder through my very first classical singing teacher and friend, tenor Kevin O’Connor. He introduced Strauss’ Morgen! to me; as a song he always wanted to learn and perform. After our lessons, we would binge YouTube videos of the great opera singers. One such video we watched was of Jessye Norman singing Morgen! Morgen became one of Kevin’s go-to pieces. Despite his hefty Heldentenor voice, he sang it with tenderness, delicateness, and love. It meant a lot to him to perform it, and that piece had a profound effect on me.
Many years later, after hearing Strauss’ operas like Elektra, Adriadne auf Naxos and Salome, I felt his music would be impossibly hard to sing. Strauss’ compositions are challenging for pitch identification, rhythm and breath control.
Unlike Strauss' operas, his Lieder struck a chord with me. I first sang Zueignung, then Allerseelen and enjoyed the experience immensely. After I graduated, I teamed up with Belinda Dalton and BK Opera to sing music of the early 20th Century in our show called ‘Befreit’. For this show, I added Das Rosenband and Befreit to my collection.
Ahh Befreit.
Befreit freed me.
Befreit is the reason I’m writing this piece today. It is one of the hardest Lied I’ve ever performed - and the best thing I picked up and challenged myself to learn.
Just listen to Jessye Norman sing it for a moment. Close your eyes and take it all in.
I had sung Strauss Lieder before, but Befreit taught me how to actually sing Strauss. The poetry and composition evokes complex lush word imagery, give and take in tempi and the BREATH CONTROL. All challenges that helped me master my singing technique.
The Four Last songs (composed 1948)
Ernst Roth, Chief Editor of Boosey & Hawkes and friend of Richard Strauss, named this group of songs as Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) in 1949 after the composer’s passing.
Created for soprano and orchestra, it includes:
Frühling (Spring)
September
Beim Schlafengehen (When Falling Asleep)
Im Abendrot (At Sunset)
The poetry is by Hermann Hesse (Frühling, September, Beim Schlafengehen) and Joseph von Eichendorff (Im Abendrot).
The songs deal with themes of death, rebirth, love and loss.
A few years ago, I saw soprano Lee Abrahmsen beautifully sing Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Stonnington Symphony Orchestra conducted by Evan J Lawson. From that point on, I’ve been determined to sing this with an orchestra.
I’m excited to have the opportunity to sing this incredible piece with Forest Collective on 15 November (7.00pm) at the Church of All Nations in Carlton. Also conducted by Evan J Lawson, but this time we’re using a published arrangement by Australian composer, James Ledger.
Each Strauss piece takes months, even years, to prepare and give it the detail it deserves. It is not predictable but like a complex puzzle, it makes complete sense when it all comes together.
I very much hope you will enjoy these pieces as much as I will performing them.
See you on the 15th.
Teresa Ingrilli (Core Artist - Soprano) will perform Strauss’ Vier Letzte Leider in our upcoming performance:
To Love and Grief
7pm Sunday 15 November
Church of All Nations, Carlton Naarm
