We left at the interval...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Friday May 19 2017 Conductor: Christian Thielemann. Renée Fleming, soprano. Sächsischen Staatskapelle Dresden. Four Last Songs ( Vier letzte Lieder ), Op. 150. Alpine Symphony ( Eine Alpensinfonie ), Op. 64. The day of the concert, I posted this on Facebook : The website of the Théâtre des Champs Elysées reduces The Four Last Songs sung by Renée Fleming to something like a cheese straw: "Leur première soirée cette saison sera de nouveau consacrée à Strauss, Dresde oblige, avec le poème Une symphonie Alpestre, autre page de Strauss de grande ampleur et à l’orchestration particulièrement riche. Et en guise de mise en bouche, les Quatre derniers Lieder, tout autant testament musical du compositeur que chant du cygne de la musique romantique, interprétés par la soprano américaine Renée Fleming." A "mise en bouche" is a pre-dinner nibble of some kind. A canapé. A cube of cheese on a cocktail stick... In the end, as ...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, May 24 2005 Philharmonia Orchestra. Sir Andrew Davis, conductor. Soile Isokoski, soprano. Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela Strauss: Four Last Songs Beethoven: Eroica I’ve been wondering for days quite what to write about this concert, and why it was so hard to pin down. I’ve come to the conclusion that, despite various things it had going for it, in the end it was bland, and the blandness was probably down to the ever reasonable, ever measured, ever British Sir Andrew Davis, standing in for Dohnanyi, who is ill. Bland isn’t a kind word to use about Soile Isokoski. Her recording of the Four Last Songs is the best recent one I’ve heard, closest yet to Lisa della Casa’s, and a great deal more satisfactory than one famous American diva’s. She is a scrupulous singer, shaping and phrasing beautifully, and with a gorgeous upper medium which is what these songs most call for; but she is scrupulously unspectacular and un-diva-like. So although, of course, the Philharmo...