This somewhat unlikely concert-derived programme kicks off with an orchestral work whose discography stretches back to Willem Mengelberg’s pioneering New York set of 1928. Plentiful competition there. Happily, Rafael Payare’s Heldenleben is very nearly as successful as his recent account of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony (6/23). While a certain suspension of disbelief is required when it comes to Strauss’s self-mythologising vein, doubts are banished in a performance of real flair. An enthusiastic podium presence, Payare gets results that are by no means ‘flash’. He takes nearly 47 minutes to negotiate a score which Carlos Kleiber and the composer himself get through in under 40. The argument flows nicely if not always with galvanic force. Such trouble spots as the lovestruck arrival of ‘The Hero’s Companion’ are managed with patient dexterity and, whether affectionate or nagging, the eloquent leader, Andrew Wan, plays impeccably. Given Payare’s background as principal horn of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, one might expect woodwind and brass to get special treatment but harps too enjoy their place in the sun and string tone, not quite Karajan-plush, is never less than well upholstered. As so often the work’s later stages sag a little, notwithstanding Payare’s careful elucidation of detail and authentic molto espressivo. At least the conventional revised ending has a rapt solemnity belying the need for the downbeat original favoured by Wolfgang Sawallisch (EMI, 10/96) and Fabio Luisi (Sony, 12/07).

It’s no surprise to find Sonya Yoncheva tackling her first recordings of German orchestral song without making too many stylistic concessions or compromises as she might see them. ‘Rebirth’ (Sony, 5/21), her covid-era album, ran the gamut from Dowland to Abba. Eduard Hanslick’s curmudgeonly review of La bohème, given under Mahler’s direction at the Vienna Court Opera between the writing of the Rückert Lieder and the songs’ public premiere, reminds us that the composer-conductor was not entirely averse to off-piste excursions. (That Hanslick was one of the purist critics parodied by Strauss might also be said to lend plausibility to Pentatone’s bill of fare.) Yoncheva, who has sung Verdi, Puccini and the rest with distinction on many occasions, imparts her own kind of expressive freedom to music we think we know. Her admirers will be pleased that she sounds so much herself and it should be said at once that she almost always takes her cue from the score, responding with generosity to indications sometimes ignored. Less committed listeners may be disturbed by the thrilling vibrancy of the upper range, which can take precedence over what might be thought the destination of a line. There are sounds both luminous and inexplicable in ‘Um Mitternacht’ where, after a very personal, still viable response to Mahler’s request for ‘fluency’, the final climax goes awry, the vocal line drooping prematurely, speeding up rather than slowing down when confronted with the vocal score’s clinching triple forte, the German mangled. Moderating the statuesque grandeur Karajan thought appropriate for Christa Ludwig (DG, 12/75), Payare keeps things moving forwards empathetically, with some pungent, literally grell (or ‘lurid’) nature-painting thrown in.

As throughout, the recorded sound is quite resonant, darker and more Teutonic than the vaporous effect associated with Montreal in the Charles Dutoit era. Accompanying annotations include an introduction from the conductor and some incongruous French cerebration from musicologist Brigitte François-Sappey. An eclectic package, to say the least!