Merbeth:Weimar Staats - STRAUSS, R.: 4 Last Songs / 6 Lieder / Ariadne auf Naxos

A year before his death in 1948, Richard Strauss composed his masterpiece, 'Four Last Songs', expressing a calm acceptance of the inevitability of his own death. The songs meditate on life, death, and the transition into 'the magic circle of the night' and rank among the most haunting music ever written. In contrast the six 'Brentano-Lieder' are playful, incandescent and virtuosic settings of Clemens Brentano's deeply romantic poems. Acclaimed Strauss star Ricarda Merbeth shines in these sublime masterpieces, as tender as they are haunting.