Fanfare 10
*****

STRAUSS Don Juan.1 Ein Heldenleben2 • Hans Graf, cond; Singapore SO • OUR 8.226934 (63:35) Live: 17/28 and 29/2022, 27/27 and 28/2023. Reviewed from a WAV download: 44.1 kHz/16-bit
While he was at work on Ein Heldenleben in 1898, Strauss said in a letter that he was inspired by Beetho¬ven’s “Eroica” Symphony, and after he became aware of the divisive reaction that the piece received, he tried to whitewash his intentions with the claim that the hero was an idealized portrait of courage and achievement. Yet this was thin cover for the obvious fact that he himself was the hero. At one point Strauss asked that performances do away with the descriptive titles of the score’s six sections, but such a feeble attempt to escape the charge of arrogant self-aggrandizement, or even self-idolatry, couldn’t get around the passages where Strauss quoted his past musical triumphs.
Not that withdrawing the score was ever under consideration, and no one who loves Strauss’s nine tone poems from Aus Italien (1886) to An Alpine Symphony (1915) would willingly give up Ein Heldenleben, whose remarkable beauty is the product of genuine inspiration, no matter what the extramusical complaints might be. If you can get the descriptive titles out of your head, which isn’t easy, listening to the score’s ravishing themes, rich harmonies, masterful modulations, and sheer excitement reveals the music’s pure pleasure, minus the hero.
If Strauss hadn’t made a breakthrough with Don Juan in 1888, I doubt that its two predecessors, Aus Italien and Macbeth, would be remembered, and it is still amazing, if you look upon those scores as part of Strauss’s orchestral learning curve, how little they foretell the extraordinary quality of Don Juan. It serves as a good place for Hans Graf and the Singapore Symphony to begin, not just as a curtain raiser but thematically as well, because Strauss approached Don Juan as a kind of hero. In Nikolaus Lenau’s poem, which was the 24-year-old composer’s inspiration, the figure of Don Juan from the 17th century, where he is a Spanish nobleman relentlessly pursuing a career of rakish lechery, becomes more Faustian.
Lenau conceives of the Don as a kind of idealist, seeking the perfect embodiment of womanhood. When his amorous adventures end in failure, the Don gives in to Disgust, as a symbol for the Devil, and ends his life by intentionally losing a duel. The arc of the narrative is musically represented in Strauss’s score, starting with a swashbuckling theme for Don Juan, lyrical themes for his trysts, and a declining soft coda when he dies.
The performance here sets the stage for the main event with gorgeous playing by the Singapore Symphony, which has achieved international status since its founding in 1979. The orchestra has a 44-week season, and looking at the personnel listing on their website, from top to bottom the string section is Asian, with a strong concentration of Chinese names. The sheen and luster of the violin sonority is a major asset in depicting Don Juan, whose exultant theme is in the strings. Graf conducts impeccably, and the recorded sound is lifelike if a bit distant, giving us a concert hall perspective.
Graf, who is Austrian, born in 1949, has had a peripatetic career—his first appointment was with the Iraqi Symphony in Baghdad—including a decade conducting the orchestra of the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In this country he is best known for leading the Houston Symphony from 2001 to 2013; they won a Grammy for a widely acclaimed Wozzeck on Naxos. In my experience Graf is a thoroughly admirable musician, and his account of Ein Heldenleben is essentially flawless. The recorded sound from 2023 is closer than for Don Juan, presenting the score with more impact.
The Singapore Symphony has a vacancy for the position of permanent concertmaster, and here the violin solos in “The Hero’s Companion” are performed by the American guest concertmaster, David Coucheron, who became concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony at age 25, the youngest person to achieve that position with a major American orchestra. The solos depicting the hero’s beloved are superbly played, rising to concerto quality for phrasing, technique, and expressions.
Graf displays complete knowledge and mastery of the music as the hero struts, preens, romances, dreams, and finally fades into the sunset in the style of a Hollywood Western. Graf seems to relish every bit of it, and the orchestra conveys the same exuberance in its totally involved playing.
This is Graf’s first recording of standard repertoire with the SSO, and it might turn into a hail and farewell since he is stepping down as music director at the end of the 2025–26 season, to be succeeded by the excellent Finish conductor Hannu Lintu. With luck, however, there will be more recordings of Graf in Singapore. This outstanding Strauss performance shows the way. https://www.fanfarearchive.com/articles/atop/49_4/4940755.aa_STRAUSS_Don_Juan_1.html

https://www.fanfarearchive.com/articles/atop/49_4/4940755.aa_STRAUSS_Don_Juan_1.html