A newcomer must enter the lists with some trepidation in a field so full of such glorious versions of the Strauss as listed above. In this case Studer need hardly fear comparison with the best of her predecessors, largely because her voice, lyrical yet with dramatic overtones, seems near-ideal for Strauss (as she has shown in his operas) and for this work in particular, quite apart from the sheer beauty and technical accomplishment of her singing. She has the radiance della Casa and Popp have brought to the songs coupled with the fuller tone of Te Kanawa and much of the interpretative insight of Schwarzkopf. In the first two songs there is the necessary ecstasy and longing in her singing as Strauss reviews, elegiacally, his musical credo. As an exemplar of the rest I would cite the loving treatment in ''September'' of the phrases beginning ''Langsam tut er'', the singer's tone poised, the shading of the line perfectly natural. It is the seamless legato and lovely voice that again make ''Beim Schlafengehen'' so rewarding while, in the final song, Studer is suitably hushed and reflective.
Sinopoli and the Staatskapelle Dresden provide ideal support for their singer. The depths of the music are plumbed without any resort to exaggeration and the playing is as lyrically expressive as the singing above it, all tempos ideally judged. Similar praise can be given to the reading of the Wesendonk Lieder. Here, once again, one notes Studer's amazing combination of vocal mastery and interpretative insight. If there's a better sung version of these luscious songs about I don't know of it. Every dynamic and expressive mark is scrupulously followed (listen to the piano at ''Luft'' and ''Duft'' in the second song) in the pursuit of seamless phrasing and a due attention to the text. What more can one ask? Sympathetic partners. Those Studer has in Sinopoli and the Dresden orchestra. At the moment comparison here seems unnecessary especially as few recordings, apart from the highly promising but inevitably immature one recently from Elisabeth Meyer-Topsoe (Kontrapunkt, 1/94), couple these two cycles.
Studer's Liebestod (a work she has recorded before, EMI, 9/89—nla) makes one eager for her to sing the role on stage, or at least on CD (the latter a distinct possibility before long). The richness of her singing, the thorough mastery of German diction and phraseology, make this another special performance, and she has managed to think herself into Isolde's trance-like state without the benefit of singing the whole part beforehand although the performance hasn't quite the ecstasy of, say, Birgit Nilsson. Incidentally, what other singer within the space of a year could have done the hat-trick of Semiramide (2/94), the Barber songs (5/94) and this Wagner/Strauss recital, and encompassed each idiom so comprehensively?
Sinopoli's reading of the Prelude to Tristan is now much more flowing, intense and spontaneous than when he conducted it in London a few years ago and the playing is predictably superb, all adding to the disc's worth. The recordings are happily spacious and well focused—except that the orchestra is too backward and a shade muddy in the Liebestod'