Strauss's Farewell and Korngold's Tribute to Vienna

Erich Wolfgang Korngold's nostalgic tribute to Vienna meets Richard Strauss's most intimate love letter. Roberto González-Monjas conducts this encounter between two masters of the late-Romantic orchestral sound, with star soprano Corinne Winters in Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder.

In an era marked by the experiments of modernism, two of the most fascinating composers from the German-speaking world chose to look backwards. Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Richard Strauss shared a deep nostalgia for the heyday of Viennese cultural tradition, but expressed it in entirely different ways. While Korngold, as a Hollywood exile, recalled the Vienna of his childhood through American eyes, the aging Strauss turned his gaze toward life's great questions with the wisdom that only comes with age.