Not surprisingly, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra play these three masterly symphonic poems with virtuosity, great feeling and a glorious patina of string tone, and the rich hall resonance is well caught by the SACD recording. But what make these performances so outstanding are Manfred Honeck’s interpretations, which vividly bring out the music’s emotional and pictorial detail. First this comes in the heroine’s reaction to Don Juan’s seductions. After the wistful violin solo, the main theme is gently yearning – an almost hesitant response, one to which she succumbs reluctantly. Then the Don is off with great virility; but now the feminine oboe solo, movingly played here, is even more tender and delicate, and very sad in the coitus triste sequence. In the great horn tune the Don flaunts his success and then departs again full of confidence (the orchestral playing has a thrilling, pressurised momentum). His later moments of doubt are thrown aside by the return of the horn tune, now bolder still, steady and triumphant, and here the strings assert the overwhelming passion of the lovers before the coda brings disillusionment as their sensual feeling drains away.

The change of mood for the opening of Death and Transfiguration is then created by haunting pianissimo strings, together with gentle drum beats, harp and strings hinting at the dying man’s drift into semi-consciousness. Then (in the conductor’s words) he ‘reflects on his life’, obviously vigorous and with human contradictions. Finally we hear ‘a sound of transfigured beauty that anticipates eternal peace and rest’; and, after a series of resonant pianissimo strokes on the tam-tam, the work closes with the main theme built to a great climax. It is a solemn culmination that does not sound in the least overplayed here but richly and almost totally overwhelms the listener with its depth of feeling.

Till Eulenspiegel opens by immediately capturing the antics of its hero but the piquant Pittsburgh horn soloist immediately sets a non-malicious mood, which is obvious when he makes fun of the learned scholars and then leaves, ‘sticking out his tongue’. Eventually Till departs again, this time on the way to heaven, still cocking his snook, and in Manfred Honeck’s hands Strauss’s coda suggests that he was not such a bad fellow after all.

This is one of the outstanding Strauss CDs of the year; the quality of playing and recording makes it very recommendable indeed.