Strauss: Four Last Songs; Wagner, Berg / Eaglen, Et Al

$11.98
Label
Sony Masterworks
Release Date
March 21, 2000
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      EAGLEN, JANE
    • PERFORMER
      Jane Eaglen
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      March 21, 2000
    • UPC
      074646172025
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      SK61720
    • LABEL
      Sony Masterworks
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Vocal
    Works ⌄

    1. No. 1. Der Engel (The Angel)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    2. No. 2. Stehe still (Stand Still)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    3. No. 3. Im Treibhaus (In the Hothouse)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    4. No. 4. Schmerzen (Pain)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    5. No. 5. Traume (Dreams)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    6. No. 1. Nacht

      Composer: Alban Berg

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    7. No. 2. Schilflied

      Composer: Alban Berg

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    8. No. 3. Die Nachtigall

      Composer: Alban Berg

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    9. No. 4. Traumgekront

      Composer: Alban Berg

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    10. No. 5. Im Zimmer

      Composer: Alban Berg

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    11. No. 6. Liebesode

      Composer: Alban Berg

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    12. No. 7. Sommertage

      Composer: Alban Berg

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    13. No. 1. Frühling (Spring)

      Composer: Richard Strauss

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen, Janice Graham

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    14. No. 2. September

      Composer: Richard Strauss

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen, Janice Graham

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    15. No. 3. Beim Schlafengehen (At Bedtime)

      Composer: Richard Strauss

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen, Janice Graham

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles

    16. No. 4. Im Abendrot (In the Evening Glow)

      Composer: Richard Strauss

      Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Eaglen, Janice Graham

      Conductor: Donald Runnicles


Real Wagnerian sopranos are rare, but Jane Eaglen has the deep, rich soprano, as well as the stamina it takes, to be a Brünnhilde. Here she is, off the rock and away from the opera stage, presented in a veritable iron-woman triathlon of late romantic song cycles, all of which tax the human voice to its limits, merely asking it to float and soar above a large orchestra and still sound angelic. While Richard Strauss's 'Four Last Songs' is the ultimate example, Wagner's own 'Wesendonk Lieder' is the prototype for this subgenre of evoked sunsets and dreams: indeed, the desire to make time and season stand still in a nether world between sleep, dreaming and waking is common to nearly every song in all three cycles. The 'Seven Early Songs' of Alban Berg makes a perfect discmate, especially for the Strauss, as it similarly stretches tonality in every beautiful direction without attempting to leave it. These are songs of impossible longing, and they require nearly impossible musicianship to carry off, but Eaglen and conductor Donald Runnicles, with flowing tempos and carefully judged balances, bring you into the reverie and don't let go.