Richard Strauss “Four Last Songs” (1982)<i> EMI Classics</i>

When your college degrees are in music, it’s downright embarrassing to admit that you discovered one of the most sublime compositions of this or any other century in the middle of a Mel Gibson movie. But that was the case with Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs.” That movie snippet eventually led me to soprano Lucia Popp’s ethereal recording of the work (with Klaus Tennstedt conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra). It is one of my favorite recordings ever. The movie was Peter Weir’s 1983 “The Year of Living Dangerously.” Sigourney Weaver was playing hard to get; Mel was moping, and Linda Hunt put on another soprano’s version of the third song, a setting of Hermann Hesse’s poem “Beim Schlafengehen,” by way of consolation. Popp’s LP was available, and that’s what I’ve put on whenever in need of my own periodic dose of consolation or inspiration. In the interim, Jessye Norman’s acclaimed recording on Philips all but eclipsed the Popp edition, which eventually went out of print. The loss was all ours. Popp is silver purity to Norman’s golden warmth, and while Norman’s mega-crescendos may throw off the shackles of this world, such have little place in Popp’s shimmering, exquisitely heartbreaking, already otherworldly leave-taking. And what finer tribute to Popp’s own leave-taking, last week at the age of 54? Fortunately, EMI Classics reissued Popp’s “Four Last Songs” on compact disc last year, with a bonus. The original pairing of Strauss’ final composition with his earlier meditation on mortality, “Death and Transfiguration,” has been expanded to include orchestral excerpts from Richard Wagner’s likewise death-focused “Twilight of the Gods.” All, despite their common theme, are incredibly life-affirming and enhancing.