המתת השור

in 1947-8 he wrote his last masterpiece, the Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) for sop. and orch. Officially cleared in 1948 of complicity in Nazi régime. Visited London 1947, conducting own works and attending perfs. cond. by Beecham. His last work, completed 23 Nov. 1948, was a song Malven (Knobel), ded. to Maria Jeritza. After operation in Lausanne in Dec. 1948, returned to Garmisch May 1949, dying there on 8 Sept.
''Malven'' is shorter and slighter than the gloomy, radiantly transcendent ''Four Last Songs,'' but still characteristic. It is 72 bars long in the key of E flat, with a typically grateful soprano line, unsettling harmonic twists and an unusual, hesitating piano part.

Strauss's text was by Miss Knobel, a Swiss poet and journalist, who provided a nostalgic, Art Nouveau-style picture of mallow flowers - ''Malven'' in German - as ''scentless and drained of purple glow, resembling a tear-stained and pallid face, washed by the golden, heavenly light.''