Richard Strauss' Last Four Songs (Vier Letzte Lieder) were the great composer's farewell to a world that was forever destroyed by the events that underlie all of Sebald's work, especially Austerlitz.  These songs have been important to many important people, including too many writers to name (the songs make notable appearances, to take one example, in several of Philip Roth's novels).  They've certainly been my steady companions since I first listened to them sometime late in 2003, and I've listened to all the great vocal interpreters, but it became clear to me early on that Gundula Janowitz's 1971 version, under the complicated but much-admired conductor Herbert von Karajan and his Berliner Philharmoniker, was the most affecting.  I've had many arguments about this over the years with people.  It came as a wonderful surprise to me to learn, then, shortly after he died earlier this year, that David Bowie--who has also long been a musical companion of my days--had long shared the same preference for Janowitz' recording of the Last Four Songs:

"There is one piece of music that puts me in a place that no other music does. It's called Four Last Songs, written by Richard Strauss. Particularly a performance by Gundula Janowitz. It can definitely bring me to tears." - David Bowie in Rolling Stone, Oct 2003

(Make sure to have volume up, and play through to the last song, "Im Abendrot."):

The Last Four Songs - Richard Strauss