Every hero needs a heroine. Richard Strauss in his autobiographical Heldenleben portrays his real-life Frau, soprano Pauline de Ahna, by means of a solo violin, here the excellent Buffalo concertmaster Nikki Chooi, and he’s as good as anyone in the portraiture stakes. But there is a second heroine to nurture the self-penning Strauss, and be at his side, JoAnn Falletta, who conducts an impressive performance, persuasively paced throughout, with plenty of pertinent detail and incident as part of a sweeping rendition, flexible, too, when Pauline enters the scene. The forty-five-minute account (on a single track, by the way) is nicely symphonic, a joined-up reading that bounds, seduces, goes into battle courageously – conflagration and clarity combined – and touching when the Hero reviews his life’s work (in reality Strauss had many years of creativity ahead) and sails into the sunset with his Companion. Very well played (the odd slip aside) and recorded (live in Kleinhans Music Hall, a volume increase helps), this is a commendable version of a much-recorded blockbuster.
The three-movement, half-hour Violin Concerto by Persian composer Behzad Ranjbaran (born 1955) is a colourful, cinematic celebration of his country’s musical estate, tuneful and picturesque, Chooi now standing in front of his Buffalo colleagues as a virtuoso soloist relishing exotic melodies, sultry atmosphere, and dashing rhythms, vibrantly scored, the orchestra and Falletta at the top of their game in terms of panache and conversing with the soloist, well-balanced.
Physical copies of Beau Fleuve 783970 072641 can be obtained through the Buffalo website and/or streamed from Naxos, a label that has imminent and tasty Falletta titles due this year to add to her distinguished discography, including Copland and Hindemith, a Stravinsky release, and The Spanish in Paris, the reverse fixture of that below.