Gramophone Awards
2024
Shortlisted - Voice & Ensemble

Singer Asmik Grigorian has chosen to record both versions of Richard Strauss's ultimate masterpiece, composed in 1948: the version with orchestra and the much rarer version with piano. For her, this work is associated with the idea of solitude, but not an unhappy solitude, rather a journey towards infinity: "Now all my senses long to sink into slumber. And the soul, unguarded, longs to soar up in freedom, so that, in night’s magic circle, it may live deeply and a thousandfold." writes Hermann Hesse in Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep), the third song in the cycle. For this unique coupling, Asmik is joined by two long-time accomplices: conductor Mikko Franck, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and pianist Markus Hinterhauser, artistic director of the Salzburg Festival. The combination of the two versions opens up new sensations: after the well-known abundance of Strauss's orchestration an incredible sensitivity is revealed by the piano version.

1. Four Last Songs, TrV 296: I. Frühling
2. Four Last Songs, TrV 296: II. September
3. Four Last Songs, TrV 296: III. Beim Schlafengehen
4. Four Last Songs, TrV 296: IV. Im Abendrot
5. Four Last Songs, TrV 296: I. Frühling
6. Four Last Songs, TrV 296: II. September
7. Four Last Songs, TrV 296: III. Beim Schlafengehen
8. Four Last Songs, TrV 296: IV. Im Abendrot