Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder; Capriccio (excerpt) / Ravel: Shéhérazade / Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (

BBC Music Magazine November 2004 **** “It's always worth remembering that Richard Strauss thought of his Four Last Songs as an exultant celebration of life rather than as a melancholy valediction. Elisabeth Söderström is entirely faithful to this vision. The overriding impression of this life Festival Hall performance from 1976 is of her enraptured sense of engagement with both the music and her audience. The real wonders of this disc are to be found in Söderström's Mozart... As Figaro's Countess, she brings the dignity and grief of a truly great heart to 'Porgi amor', and the range of emotions she expresses in the distraught recitative to 'Dove sono' is thrilling indeed.”