Classical Music | Soprano

Recorded on 08/11/2011, uploaded on 09/26/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Richard Strauss was a master of vocal composition, and he had a particular reverence for the soprano voice, in part inspired by his happy marriage to the operatic soprano Pauline de Ahna. On one occasion, he commented, “I thank my Almighty Creator for the gift and inspiration of the female voice.” Strauss began composing lieder in his early years as a composer, and continued to do so right up until his death in 1949. Some of Strauss’s songs, such as the famous “Allerseelen,” have entered the standard repertoire. Yet, despite his superb writing for the voice, and his ability to masterfully handle the dramatic as well as the sentimental, many of his songs are often overlooked.

After having composed no lieder for some twelve years, Richard Strauss returned to the genre in 1918, and turned out four successive sets of them, comprising opp. 66-69. The last of these sets, 5 Kleine Lieder, draw on the poetry of Achim von Arnim and Heinrich Heine, two early Romantic poets. Third in the op. 69 collection is “Einerlei” (“Singular One”), based on a charming little text by Arnim. Despite the brevity of the text, however, Strauss creates a remarkably enchanting song. In a lilting triple meter, the song is marked by a lighthearted melody of wondrous affection and joy, introduced first by the piano and later taken up by the voice, and the gentle syncopated chords that often appear in the accompaniment. After a tender and loving climax on the final two lines of Arnim’s poem, the music slowly fades away as the piano provides a delicate close to the song.       Joseph DuBose

The Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's professional studies program for young musicians.