Zarak,

If you've never heard Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, you are in for a treat, and Renee Fleming sings them fantastically well. There are thrilling changes of key, harmony and melody.

Strauss wrote them when he was 80, and they are the culmination of his career. I've requested they be played at my funeral and I think it should be the Renee Fleming version. I've picked her recording likely because her rendition is among the most recent (I have them by three others, all of which are very fine--Kiri TaKanawa, Elizabeth Schwartzkopf and Lucia Popp).

I don't know the Dvorak, but that composer is always melodic and of course the Wagner will be grand and impressive.

The other program is modern (the Berio would likely drive me out of the hall) which usually means no melody, jarring atonal and discordant noise. Avoid it.

Regards,


Alan Lofft,
Axiom Resident Expert (Retired)