Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Ein Heldenleben (1899)
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Rückert-Lieder (1901)
Sonya Yoncheva (soprano)
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal/Rafael Payare
rec. 2023, La Maison symphonique de Montréal, Canada
Pentatone PTC5187201 [64]
As I sit writing this review, Rafael Payare and his Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) must be getting ready to board a plane back across the Atlantic after another successful European tour. They started in London at the Barbican and the concert was reviewed well. The audience were treated to the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique and the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 1. The rest of the tour involved Daniil Trifonov as pianist but the replacement for him in London was Javier Perianes, one of my favourite artists, so I am very jealous of those who managed to get to the concert.
I recently read Ralph Moore’s excellent review of the OSM Schoenberg disc on Pentatone. Earlier in 2024 the partnership released this disc devoted to Strauss and Mahler and it seems to have slipped through the net, hence my rather late attempt at its appraisal.
I guess many collectors like me will have several Decca CDs of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal on their shelves. Back in the day they were considered the crème de la crème in terms of sonics and at full price they were very desirable yet often, for me, out of reach in price terms. Charles Dutoit was their conductor from 1977. On record, Decca obviously covered the French repertory extensively, although not exclusively. The combination of Montréal, Dutoit and Decca happened at an important time in the history of our record collecting hobby as it coincided with the dawn of the digital era. Every record they issued was recorded in this format and unlike some rival companies, Decca was good at it. The records won awards aplenty and the legacy is there for us to enjoy today (at a considerably reduced price too).
After a period under Kent Nagano, since 2022 the OSM have been led by Rafael Payare. Payare is Venezuelan and went through their famous Sistema to become an impressive horn player before taking up studies in conducting and working with the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland for five years. Incidentally, I could not find any issued performance of anything from them in that time. I think I have a complete collection of BBC Music Magazine CDs and would have thought they would have released something (the Ulster Orchestra is a BBC group). That is a shame, as Payare is an interesting artist and that stage in his career would have been important in his development I presume.
I am impressed with the Heldenleben under the OSM and Payare on this Pentatone CD. We really need Ralph Moore to appraise it, as he has so many others in his superlative survey of the work. In my opinion we have here a worthy account in superbly engineered sound from la Maison symphonique de Montréal (alas the fabled St. Eustache across the Rivière des Mille Îles from the city, so beloved of the Decca engineers with its distinctive barrel vault, seems no longer to be used for recording).
There is a really nice balance of strings, wind and brass throughout and the orchestra sound vibrant and bright. At just over 46 minutes the performance is not over-long, but if I am being ultra-critical there are some places where the pulse does sag a little and where I feel Payare could have been a bit more sprightly (reference track 2).
Strauss paints an endearing picture of his wife Pauline de Ahna in the piece and the leader of the OSM Andrew Wan is marvellous in his solos accompanied by the grumbling orchestra. (Strauss himself, or is it the other way around!) There is some delightful phrasing by other Montréal principals in the tender interlude following this Des Helden Glück (track 4). Offstage trumpets usher in the development section of the piece (I am, as you can tell, sold on the idea of the piece as classic sonata-form in construction) and it is here that conductor and orchestra really come into their own. Percussion is prominent and the brass blaze, but the overall structure and direction is under total control and you can really hear the details.
The strings (16,14,12,10,8) for me are the jewel of the orchestra at the present time. They really impress in their ensemble and their flexibility of tone (try the first few minutes of track 6). I grew up with Fritz Reiner and Sir Thomas Beecham in this work and so it is near-impossible that any recording is going to knock those two off their perches for me. In recent years I have been most impressed with Andris Nelsons, who is a great Straussian. He has done Heldenleben twice in Leipzig (DG) and Birmingham (Orfeo). I don’t think this record can quite compete with the top library recommendations. But it is a very decent account of a much loved work and a lovely memento if you have been lucky enough to see the OSM and Payare perform recently, or you are collecting their Pentatone releases.
The Strauss is coupled unusually and perhaps uniquely with Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder sung by soprano star Sonya Yoncheva. They go for the five songs starting with Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft, ending with Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (quite rightly) with the brooding brass and wind accompanied Um Mitternacht in the middle.
Yoncheva is perhaps in her prime now but her career was affected by the pandemic, as 2020-22 should have been her glory years. I remember her as Norma in 2016 at Covent Garden with Pappano, and follow-ups in La bohème (2020) with a return earlier this year (2024) in Tosca. Her successes elsewhere have been in the major leagues: Otello, Tosca, Luisa Miller and Fedora for the Met and triumphs in Paris and the Scala too.
She is definitely out of her fach with Mahler, but it is delightful. Her still-fresh soprano is limpid and she floats the notes wonderfully with no forcing and everything judged impeccably. Readers might rightly wonder how many other spinto sopranos have recorded the Rückert-Lieder. True, it is mainly sung by mezzos, but there is precedent with Anne Schwanewilms, Renée Fleming and Felicity Lott all having a go. I would recommend sampling her in Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. It would be a hard heart that could not feel something of beauty in it.
Philip Harrison
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