In 1948, a then 84 year old Strauss, wrote one of his most beloved pieces, the Four Last Songs (German: Vier letzte Lieder). He died shortly after its completion in 1949 and was sadly never able to hear the songs being played. The songs display a sense of acceptance and equanimity for his fate. Strauss says goodbye to life and the world says goodbye to a musical language that has now definitely become ‘historical’. While Strauss wrote these songs, atonal music had become more popular, and in the second half of the twentieth century, music would take on another radical course.
Artistic director Bart Schneemann enlightens the audience (in Dutch) using a projected manuscript.
The Four Last Songs sung by alt-mezzo Carina Vinke as Edith Piath on a bar stool in a smoky nightclub, in a new enticing NBE arrangement by Willem van Merwijk.
The Four Last Songs sung by alt-mezzo Carina Vinke as Edith Piath on a bar stool in a smoky nightclub, in a new enticing NBE arrangement by Willem van Merwijk.
