Generally acknowledged as the least inspired of the collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal, this work has struggled since its inception for due recognition in the canon. The difficulties arise from the overblown libretto and the diffuse score. The authors intended to write something akin to an operetta, but neither’s gift really lay in that direction. Even such a Strauss enthusiast as William Mann, in his Critical Study of the Operas (Cassell: 1964), found it hard to make a case for the opera, at least for any but the most devout Straussian.

It is available at present in two versions featuring the Helen of Dame Gwyneth Jones, whose presence and voice were well-suited to the role. The first is the studio recording under Dorati in 1979, the second a live performance at the Vienna State Opera in 1970 conducted by Josef Krips, of which the latter is preferable: Jones is in better voice and the supporting cast is superior. A better advocate for the piece than either of these is the 1955 Munich performance, under Keilberth, once available on Orfeo, because it features Leonie Rysanek as Helen, almost ideal casting for the central role as she was for the later Danaë. Strauss would surely have adored her in the part.

Now we have a new contender, one based on a New York concert performance in October last year. Its conductor, Leon Botstein, makes his case for the piece in a long essay in the booklet, but his conducting of it seems rather hard-driven, a view confirmed by Martin Bernheimer, who reported on the occasion in Opera magazine. It fails to achieve the lyrical transports of its predecessors, as accomplished as the orchestra is. As Bernheimer commented, Botstein ‘constantly accentuated the fast and furious’.

Deborah Voigt, who has become something of a Strauss specialist, has sung Helen in London, also in concert (during the Royal Opera House closure). Here she repeats her vibrant, thoroughly professional performance, one or two harsh moments on high excepted, but as with other recordings of hers, I never feel any defined characterisation in her interpretation. Carl Tanner is adequate in the ungrateful role of Menelaus, but not the equal of Jess Thomas on the Krips version, Celena Shafer is full of delicate charm as Aithra. The rest are no more than adequate. Idiomatic German is hardly a strong suit all round.

The recording is probably the most wide-ranging the opera has yet received, which is important in such a colourful score, but that is not enough to place this set above its rivals, certainly not above the Rysanek/Keilberth version should that ever reappear.