COMPOSERS: Faure,Strauss LABELS: CASAVELLE WORKS: Fauré: Requiem; Strauss: Four Last Songs PERFORMER: Teresa Stich-Randall (soprano), Gérard Souzay (baritone); Union Chorale de la Tour-de-Peilz; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Ernest Ansermet CATALOGUE NO: VEL 3135
Richard Strauss is another composer not commonly associated with Ansermet, but the Four Last Songs are sympathetically moulded, with a relatively youthful Teresa Stich-Randall making it clear why she so impressed Toscanini, with remarkable control and a full but clear tone.
She is less well-suited to the ‘Pie Jesu’ in the big-boned account of Fauré's Requiem on the same disc, given very much as a concert rather than church-work.