4tu no Saigo no Uta

I received this (in Jakarta, Indonesia, where I live) within 30 days since ordering. I love Maki Mori, and this is just her second album I own. So I'll just try to write about the Vier Letzte Lieder part, tracks 1 to 4, of this album as they are most familiar to me among the 13 tracks in this album. Overall I think this is an excellent album. Tracks 5 and onwards sound very well sung and they suit her too. My first listen to the entire album, and I find that some of these 'other' tracks actually have more finesse to them than her rendition of Richard Strauss' four last songs. Hers is a very fine singing voice, elegant, succinct, and soars with beauty. The orchestra in Fruhling is overwhelming it almost drowns Maki Mori's smaller voice. September, however, finds home here. And then there's my favourite among the four, Beim Schlafengehen. I found it rather odd to listen to at first--her style is different, her diction is not so Germanic, no pun. For example with Queen of the Night the vocal fireworks sort of become the star, allowing some room for odd diction. But Beim Schlafengehen is quiet and slow, and I can't help but scrutinize the diction here, that it's very rigid and at times over-enunciated, not to mention this is the one lied among the four I listen to the most. Great work, still. The orchestra is loud and bright, reminiscence of war music, the patriotic kind you'd hear in Japanese historical drama. Maki Mori's voice too blazes with succinctness and pinpoint accuracy, which, although nice, leaves no room for melancholy, for which this song gives so much room. I love how her voice just flows when she sings, though, as if she never needed take a breath between phrases. Lastly among the four, Im Abendrot, is excellent. Maki Mori does prayer-like songs very well I think, as is also proven in her other album Ave Maria. PS. For me Fruhling gives the image of a buzzing spring time, all living beings out there rejoicing. September (despite its lyrics about the garden and flowers and all) is for me like a journey through the sea back home. Beim Schlafengehen is like the moments before one's eternal sleep. And lastly Im Abendrot is just like what its lyrics depict, facing death.