For your listening pleasure tonight, Dame Kiri te Kanawa sing “Four Last Songs” by Richard Strauss.
Strauss suffered the ignomy of being Hitler’s favorite living composer, and his references to Wagner are unmistakable. To Strauss’s credit, he used his position to protect Jews, including his daughter-in-law Alice and his friend, Stegan Zweig. There is evidence that he provided protection for other Jews as well, but he understandably left no contemporaneous notes.
Frühling (Spring)
September
Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep)
Im Abendrot (At Sunset)
Great music, interesting history about Strauss. I believe Carl Orff was a Nazi favorite too.