This is the second instalment of Strauss accompanying his own songs taken from Austrian Radio broadcasts of 1942: I reviewed the first in June 1990. Again one notes how he prefers understatement to the overstatement of our time, expressed in too deliberate speeds. This reticence in songs such as Traum durch die Dammerung and Ich trage meine Minne may seem to today's listeners wanting in expressive weight, but repeated hearings of Reining's lovely account of Freundliche Vision or Dermota's unaffected, ideal version of Die Nacht, lead me to the conclusion that Strauss knew best how these songs should be interpreted. In any case, Reining, with her gloriously free, freshly lyrical tone, and Dermota, with his plangent, highly individual, vibrant voice, both alive with ardour, were—are—the perfect singers for Strauss's songs. Dermota's Traum durch die Dammerung is rivalled only by Patzak, also with the composer but in his orchestral arrangement (on an Acanta LP—nla). Only Lehmann and Patzak (again) offer such urgent, impassioned versions of Cacilie as Reining. Both Reining and Dermota give equally valid, fervent accounts of the popular Zueignung. The only criticism that can be made of Reining is that she is inclined to break phrases with unwanted breaths.
Lea Piltti, a singer who will be less familiar to British collectors, was a Finnish soprano leggiero active at the Vienna State Opera from 1938 to 1944, and noted for her Constanze and Queen of Night. I do not find her light, somewhat fluttery voice as attractive as those of her colleagues, but if you appreciate, say, Barbara Hendricks in Strauss you may find her singing more appealing than I do. Standchen surely calls for a fuller, more sappy voice, but she shows a refined control in Waldseligkeit. She is also allotted Schlagende Herzen and Kling!, two of the composer's more trite songs.
Strauss himself is too backwardly placed to make much effect. As was demonstrated on the earlier CD he was no longer the most nimble of pianists, but still capable of a winning lightness of touch and—as I say—the readings are invaluable in showing that he was the arch-enemy of sentimentality in his songs. The voices reproduce clearly without distortion.'