Bernard Haitink, the most European of conductors, might seem an unexpected choice as principal conductor of America’s most high-powered orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Yet this live recording issued on the orchestra’s own label clearly demonstrates what superb results this alliance produces. The playing could not be subtler or more refined, with Haitink putting his distinctive stamp on the performances. The wonderful gradations of dynamic are meticulously controlled, with the strings in particular sounding glorious.

Haitink’s control of structure, too, is perfect, with the huge sequence of linked movements more than ever reflecting the idea of a massive sonata form, the opening portrait of the Hero a clear exposition, set against first the Hero’s Adversaries and then the Hero’s Companion, a portrait of Pauline, Strauss’s characterful wife, represented in the volatile part for solo violin, immaculately played by Robert Chen.

His solo violin sounds somewhat distant in the stereo spectrum but the balance is arguably more natural than the spotlighting of the soloist, so often encountered. The magnificent Chicago horn section sounds glorious in the many important passages that Strauss provides. The Hero’s Battle with his Enemies (the critics) is incisively presented in the finest detail – an equivalent of a development section, leading finally to the heavenly resolution on the full statement of Strauss’s fulfilment theme, inspiring the strings to playing no less than heavenly.

Despite this consistent excellence, the oddity is that the performance does not come over as a live experience, lacking the final bite of an actual performance. Haitink’s earlier recordings of this same work, whether or not made in the studio, tend to confirm this, but there is so much in the disc’s favour that few will worry. The early Webern work may seem an unexpected coupling but works surprisingly well, for at this point in his career Webern, like Strauss, was revelling in a post-Wagnerian dream. A first-rate disc demonstrating the glory of orchestral music-making in the United States, a model for the rest of the world.