Just the other day, I was reorganizing my ever-growing collection of CDs and found a trove of recordings of Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. I must have at least twenty different versions of the song cycle. Sometimes when I am in the mood, I will sit down and listen to five or six of them at a stretch. The subtle differences among artists and performances never cease to amaze and delight me. Here is an article I wrote for Opera News a few years back detailing the story behind these astonishing songs. The link below will take you to the magazine’s archives where this piece, like the subject of the songs, is at eternal rest.

Click here: Four Last Songs