STRAUSS, R: LIEDER - SOUZAY, GUEDEN

Richard Strauss came of age as a song composer in his late teens with his lushly upholstered Op. 10, set to poems by the obscure nineteenth-century versifier, Hermann von Gilm. In 1887, he started to give lessons to a promising young soprano, Pauline de Ahna, daughter of a retired general (and woe betide anyone who forgot it). The pair were married in 1894 and many of his songs from Op. 21 onwards were intended for Pauline, not least the glorious Op. 27, Strauss’s wedding gift to his new bride. For a decade from the mid-1890s they gave acclaimed recital tours in Europe and the United States. He wrote in his Memoirs: ‘She sang my songs with an expression and a poetry such as I have never heard since.’

This Strauss Lieder recital brings together songs by two acclaimed singers – Gérard Souzay and Hilde Gueden. Souzay’s mellow beauty of tone and evenness of line are eloquently displayed in his 1964 recording of seventeen Strauss Lieder.

With her silvery timbre and precious Straussian gift of softly floated phrases, Gueden was for many an ideal Sophie (‘Der Rosenkavalier’) and Zdenka (in ‘Arabella’) while she virtually owned the formidably taxing title role of Strauss’ ‘Daphne’. What the doyen of British voice-critics, John Steane, called Gueden’s ‘youthful shining sound’ can be heard in the songs on this disc recorded in the late 1950s, when her voice was in its prime.

‘Baldwin’s luminous playing…’ (Souzay) Gramophone

‘Gueden is intelligent, as always’ (Gueden) Gramophone

RICHARD STRAUSS
All mein’ Gedanken, Op. 21 No. 1
Die Nacht, Op. 10 No. 3
Nichts, Op. 10 No. 2
Wozu noch, Mädchen, Op. 19 No. 1
Traum durch die Dämmerung, Op. 29 No. 1
Ruhe, meine Seele, Op. 27 No. 1
Zueignung, Op. 10 No. 1
Morgen, Op. 27 No. 4
Ach, weh mir unglückhaftem Mann, Op. 21 No. 4
Ständchen, Op. 17 No. 2
Freundliche Vision, Op. 48 No. 1
Ich liebe dich, Op. 37 No. 2
Nachtgang, Op. 29 No. 3
Heimliche Aufforderung, Op. 27 No. 3
Breit über mein Haupt, Op. 19 No. 2
Mein Auge, Op. 37 No. 4
Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten, Op. 19 No. 4

Gérard Souzay, baritone
Dalton Baldwin, piano

Einerlei, Op. 69 No. 3
Säusle, liebe Myrte, Op. 68 No. 3
Der Stern, Op. 69 No. 1
Schlechtes Wetter, Op. 69 No. 5
Ich wollt’ ein Sträusslein binden, Op. 68 No. 2
Als mir dein Lied erklang, Op. 68 No. 4
Freundeliche Vision, Op. 48 No. 1
Schlagende Herzen, Op. 29 No. 2
Heimkehr, Op. 15 No. 5
Befreit, Op. 39 No. 4
Die Nacht, Op. 10 No. 3
Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten, Op. 19 No. 4
Meinem Kinde, Op. 37 No. 3

Hilde Gueden, soprano
Friedrich Gulda, piano