Premiered in 1938, Friedenstag stands as one of Richard Strauss’s most strikingly topical works. Set during the Thirty Years’ War, its call for reconciliation and peace inevitably resonated against the turbulent backdrop of Europe on the brink of World War II. Though written within a politically fraught climate, the opera’s pacifist message remains unmistakable, its final hymn to peace sounding as both urgent and sincere. This recording lends even more historical context, taking place just one year after the premiere with most of the same cast.

A young Hans Hotter is heard here with complete vocal assurance, entirely free of the woofy quality that would come to define his later career. In Viorica Ursuleac, Strauss had a muse whose luminous, effortlessly silvery soprano spurred his imagination to new heights, and her performance here offers ample evidence of that inspiration.