Asmik Grigorian is undeniably one of the most exciting operatic talents on the scene today, as formidable performances as Salome, Jenůfa, Rusalka and Senta (all available on DVD and praised in these pages) attest. Her debut on Alpha, featuring Rachmaninov songs (4/22), won a deserved Gramophone Award. For her new album, though, she turns to very different repertoire: the refined final utterings of Richard Strauss.

But this is also a Four Last Songs with a difference, presenting the original orchestral version alongside piano arrangements. ‘Because “one” is never enough for me :)’, says Grigorian in a brief, chatty contribution to the booklet. It’s an unusual prospect, but Grigorian’s album joins a growing number of recordings of the piano version of the songs.

She notes that the different versions require different approaches, and that’s what they get here. This is most obvious in the far more leisurely tempos for ‘September’ (nearly two minutes longer than with orchestra) and ‘Im Abendrot’ (nearly a minute and a half); with the piano’s barer textures, autumnal melancholy morphs into something stiller, darker or – if one’s feeling less charitable – funereal.

For the orchestral performances things are more conventional. These are respectable traversals, but while Grigorian does a good job of taming her voice to the demands of Strauss’s melismatic lines, one can often sense the effort required. Right from the start one notices that the qualities that make Grigorian such a compelling stage animal – or that brought such excitement to her Rachmaninov – are not a natural fit for dappled, sunset colours of these delicate works.

The voice – its basic colour complex and dark – rarely soars or blooms as Strauss’s line demands. There’s also something provisional about the interpretation, a sense not helped by German that can be somewhat vague. Mikko Franck and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France offer fine support, but for me this new account is not really competitive in a crowded catalogue.

And I’m afraid the piano songs are not a great deal more convincing. Markus Hinterhäuser is impressive at conjuring up depths of sound at the start of ‘Im Abendrot’, in which he and Grigorian achieve an impressive sense of still concentration. But generally, his somewhat cloudy and lumpy playing doesn’t do enough to make his part sound like anything more than a piano reduction – compare it with the minor miracles Jonathan Ware achieves with Elsa Dreisig on Erato to see what I mean. (And a wrong note has even made it through in ‘Beim Schlafengehen’, at the top of his triplet phrase at 1'05".)

It’s interesting to hear Grigorian’s different approach in these arrangements, and there’s never any doubting her commitment and conviction, but similar issues with her interpretation remain, however impressively she sustains both line and concentration. In sum, then, an intriguing concept and a thought-provoking addition to this fearless artist’s catalogue, but one that ultimately also shows her limitations.