Album insights
Matthias Goerne, a renowned baritone, collaborates with pianist Seong-Jin Cho on the album "Im Abendrot," featuring late Romantic works by Richard Wagner, Hans Pfitzner, and Richard Strauss. Departing from his acclaimed Beethoven album, Goerne continues his series of recordings with talented young pianists. Exploring songs that profoundly convey the essence of human existence alongside a youthful interpreter like Seong-Jin Cho has been an extraordinary experience for him. The album opens with Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, inspired by the composer's affection for writer Mathilde Wesendonck in the late 1850s. Highlights include Strauss' "Ruhe, meine Seele!" and "Morgen!", composed as a wedding gift for his soprano wife, Pauline de Ahna. Additionally, the enchanting "Traum durch die Dämmerung" by Strauss and Pfitzner's "Abendrot," set to poems by Heinrich Heine and Joseph von Eichendorff, add depth. Eichendorff penned the verses for "Im Abendrot," which Strauss, at the age of 84 in 1948, included in his Four Last Songs, marking a poignant conclusion to the album.