4 Letzte Lieder, TrV 296 by Strauss, Mo. 01 Aug. 1977, Ab (1977/1977), Dirigat Georg Solti, Symphony Center Chicago, Chicago, Vereinigte Staaten

Around a year before his death, Richard Strauss wrote the Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra in 1948. He had selected three poems by Hermann Hesse (Spring, September, Beim Schlafengehn) and Im Abendrot by Joseph von Eichendorff for this last great commitment to Romanticism - and he also set the poetry, which was filled with farewell throughout, to music: after the late, almost classical concerts, after the metamorphoses filled with bitter sadness, he once again made use of the lush and yet extremely sensitive color palette that he had mastered so masterfully from an early age. Kirsten Flagstad and Wilhelm Furtwängler premiered four of the last songs, a kind of transfiguration near death, on May 22, 1950 in London's Royal Albert Hall - a moving obituary for the composer, For many years, Sir Georg Solti was the last great representative of the Central European musical tradition characterized by elegance and taste. Solti's notable collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra began in 1954 when he conducted the orchestra for the first time at the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony. After repeated conducting duties in the years that followed, he was appointed Principal Conductor in 1969, a post he held with great success for 22 years. The worldwide fame of the orchestra is closely linked to the name of the conductor. This recording with the great soprano Lucia Popp, who died much too early, was made in 1977 in Chicago's Orchestra Hall.