Freundliche Vision: Strauss's Life in Song by Various, 에서 (2022/2022), Holywell Music Room, Oxford, United Kingdom

Throughout his long life, Richard Strauss was the picture of bourgeois ease. Born in Munich, his childhood home was filled with music, thanks to his horn playing father and his mother’s sister, a singer, who would often perform at family gatherings. Her repertoire included Strauss’s very first compositions, setting words by leading Romantics, as well as the poetry of his father’s Bavarian contemporaries. Cutting the apron strings, Strauss’s literary taste developed in richer directions as his songs similarly morphed to reveal a psychological acuity that would pave his way to the stage. When operatic fame arrived, song composition waned. Nonetheless, Strauss would return to Lied in later life, revealing both a sharp tongue and, occasionally, compliance with the Third Reich. But it was during that final chapter that Strauss also rediscovered a more private world, recalling the familial comfort of childhood and the memories of his wife’s soprano voice. Written in the aftermath of World War II, the composer’s last works were acts of contrition that could arguably only find voice in song. Cultural historian Gavin Plumley sets Strauss’s Lied output in the context of his life and times. Gavin is joined by four exceptional Oxford Lieder Young Artists. They illustrate the event with performances of Strauss songs from the early, famous 'Zueignung' right through to songs from the Four Last Songs. Between Parts One and Two of this event, soprano Sarah Wegener and pianist Götz Payer give a recital of Strauss songs, not to be missed. Full details here.