Take a fine orchestra, an effective ‘shoebox’ acoustic (in this case the Herkulessaal in Munich), an expert team of engineers and a sympathetic conductor who knows what he’s about – working successfully with what he has at his disposal – and Strauss’s best tone-poems can hardly fail. Or at least their kaleidoscopic array of orchestral colours can’t, though whether they ignite to the point of a full-blown conflagration is down to the conductor’s temperament. With Mariss Jansons, they sometimes do.

Jansons is not an especially combustible Straussian but he certainly has an ear for the colours. His performances are more along the lines of the composer’s own, patient and relatively straitlaced, though his Royal Concertgebouw recording of Ein Heldenleben, which is conceptually very similar to the version presented here, has rather more edge. Don Juan opens broadly, with warmth to spare (compare Fritz Reiner in 1954, all brawn and fighting talk), the big centrally placed horn theme superbly played, the action thereafter dramatic and very well paced. Heldenleben suggests a cool hero-about-town rather than an impulsive ego-led hothead, or an amorous hero (ie Daniel Barenboim with Staatskapelle Berlin, DG), an impression that registers right from the opening portrait of ‘The Hero’. ‘The Battle’ is imposingly dynamic, the bass drum thumping away in clear perspective within the rest of the orchestra (more imposing than at the Concertgebouw), all desks perfectly audible – a masterly example of fine balancing, both from the rostrum and from the control room. ‘The Hero’s Works of Peace’ really come into their own when the drama sets in (the opening section is just a mite under-characterised). ‘The Hero’s Retirement from this World and Consummation’ is gently played, quietly expressive rather than especially impassioned, though the closing Zarathustra reference is majestic beyond belief.

To be truthful, I’m not sure. Musical, yes, colour-conscious, again, yes…both performances deliver on both counts in spades, but excitement? Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic are pretty impressive in that respect and so is Andris Nelsons and the CBSO; and of course there’s the ‘old guard’, Reiner in Chicago coming tops, certainly in the stereo league, and Clemens Krauss with the VPO for ‘mono tape’, with Willem Mengelberg in New York for ‘crusty shellac’ – still to my mind the greatest Heldenleben ever recorded. This second Jansons version is good, at times very good, but not quite memorable enough to be a serious contender.