Symphoniker Hamburg / Sarah Wegener / Jacek Kaspszyk

Hope

After the end of the Second World War, Richard Strauss was on the brink of financial ruin. Royalty payments for performances of his works around the world had been suspended for political reasons. Despite health problems on top of everything, Strauss wrote a great deal of letters in this time seeking to ensure his family’s future financial security and doing the necessary networking. In 1948, Strauss’s son Franz begged his father: »Papa, leave the letter-writing and the ruminating, it isn’t helping anyone. Wouldn’t it be better to write some beautiful songs?« Strauss may not have responded directly to the kindly meant advice, but he did turn his attention towards his »Four Last Songs«, in which he set three texts by Hermann Hesse and a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff to music – wonderfully lyrical, lushly orchestral, passionately interwoven.