Nina Stemme, Antonio Pappano - Strauss: Four Last Songs (2007)

Dramatic soprano Nina Stemme makes her solo album debut on EMI with Strauss' Four Last Songs and the final scenes from Salome and Capriccio. It would be difficult to imagine two operatic roles more dissimilar than Salome and the Countess Madeleine, but Stemme brings both of them to life. Her Salome is frenzied, and at the end, clearly unhinged, and Stemme is able to soar over Strauss' huge orchestra. In the final scene from Capriccio, she handles Madeleine's musings with warmth and power, but some of her phrases in her upper register sound unsupported. She brings breadth of tone, a velvety timbre, and excellent intonation to the Four Last Songs. Although she will not dispel memories of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf or Jessye Norman, she turns in a solid and lovely performance. Her voice is perhaps a little too heavy to spin out Strauss' luxuriant lines with the ringing radiance and tonal variety that characterize the most memorable performances. Antonio Pappano, leading the Covent Garden Orchestra, is likewise solid, but his reading lacks the valedictory transcendence that can make these songs so remarkably moving. EMI's sound is stellar -- Stemme and the orchestra have real presence and the balance is good.