The pieces on this program are about endings. Ravel’s La Valse is a distorted Viennese waltz, composed by a Frenchman in the aftermath of World War I. The nostalgia by which it is framed serves as a broken looking glass, twisting and warping its object.
Strauss’ exquisite Four Last Songs evince a very different nostalgia, this time redolent of poignancy and introspection. Composed at the very end of his career, the songs reflect on themes of life, mortality, and the beauty of the world.
Lastly, we have Brahms’ towering Symphony No. 4, which was the last he ever wrote and is therefore, by definition, epigrammatic. The work is filled with a palpable longing, yearning, and pathos, constrained by Brahms’ characteristic ‘Classical’ reserve. The powerful finale builds layer upon layer as an endlessly repeating theme grows to looming proportions until it delivers an unstoppable, inexorable, and dramatic close.
PROGRAM
Ravel La Valse
Strauss Vier Leizte Lieder – "Four Last Songs"
Elisabeth Rosenberg, Soprano
Brahms Symphony No. 4