Fanfare 6 (US)

Five stars: Among the best Don Juans and Ein Heldenlebens on the market

STRAUSS Don Juan. Ein Heldenleben  Hans Graf, cond; Singapore SO  OUR 8.226934 (63:35) Live: 7/28 and 29/2022 (Don Juan); 7/27 and 28 /2023 (Ein Heldenleben)

Don Juan was the opening work on Hans Graf’s first program as official Music Director of the Singapore Symphony on July 28 and 29, 2022. This same work, compiled from those live concerts on CD, also serves, as a sort of farewell to the orchestra as he prepares to step down at the conclusion of the 2025/2026 season (His successor will be Hannu Lintu.) Its disc-mate is Ein Heldenleben, which has become almost as frequently recorded these days as Don Juan. The competition with both these showpieces is fierce, as virtually every major Western orchestra (and many in the East as well) has committed it to disc at least once. So do we need this one? Well, no, we don’t actually need it. But the excellence of Asian orchestras is still largely unrecognized in the West, and with an orchestra as good as Singapore’s, and with performances (both works live, with some conjoined editing) as good as these, Western ears need to be reminded just what lies on the other side of the world.
Don Juan takes off like a rocket, blazing with white-hot intensity that brings to mind the fabled recording of Reiner/Chicago. The string playing is immaculate, every player seemingly a Heifetz or a Stern. Every note is etched with crystal clarity. Above all, Graf know just how to pace the music, each climax carefully prepared so that it sounds inevitable, nothing sounds routine, momentum never flags. Special mention goes to Rachel Taylor for her long oboe solo‒just gorgeous. This is as thrilling a Don Juan as I have ever heard.
Likewise, Ein Heldenleben grabs the attention from the very start. The opening wells up from the depths of the orchestra in a mighty surge of sound; there is no doubt that we are in the presence of a true hero. Again, like Reiner, Graf maintains a solid, energizing pulse that keeps the motion moving inexorably. The counterpoint in the opening section is dense and complex, yet every line is clearly delineated, including in the lowest register of the orchestra. The ensuing passage depicting carping critics begins rather tamely, but increases in aggressiveness so that when it comes to a halt the mood is almost vehement. Once again, it is Graf’s ability to keep both pulse and motion going without sounding pedantic that makes this Heldenleben such a joy to hear, and something beyond just orchestral virtuosity.
This brings us to the passage marked “The Hero’s Companion,” a.k.a., Strauss’s wife Pauline, one of the most challenging episodes in the entire orchestral repertory for the concertmaster. Singapore has had some excellent concertmasters in its short history, but for the past few years has been unable to attract and keep anyone for more than a season or two. At present, there are two co-concertmasters, 65-year-old Viennese-born Markus Tomasi, and 40-year-old Norwegian-born David Coucheron, who became concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony in 2010 at the age of 25, the youngest person to hold this position with any major American orchestra at the time. Tomasi is concertmaster in Don Juan, Coucheron in Ein Heldenleben, which is of course the real plum. Coucheron turns in a technically assured performance, and a pretty much standard interpretation with some tasteful individual touches near the end as if Pauline were pleading for forgiveness after berating her husband for some imagined minor offense.
In Graf’s hands the battle scene is far more than just the noisefest some orchestras make of it. There’s plenty of excitement, but there’s also music here, as well as the image of military strategy. One can almost visualize General Strauss directing his troops on the battlefield, sending some here, some there in a master plan designed to assure victory. The decisive moment is unmistakably at 5:57.
The emotional climate cools for “The Hero’s Works of Peace”‒the thirty or so quick backward glances through the Strauss catalogue (enumerated in detail in Norman Del Mar’s exhaustive study of the composer), during which we are treated to many lovely touches from the woodwind section. The final pages of the score see the return of the solo violin in ravishingly beautiful playing from Coucheron, joined by the orchestra’s outstanding principal horn, American Austin Larson.
The recording is clear and vivid, with the kind of presence one associates with a good concert hall experience. Some woodwind solos could have been brought forward a bit more. Same with the horns‒the big unison calls in Don Juan definitely need more presence, and throughout Ein Heldenleben one sometimes misses the color all those horns (eight of them) add to the sonic landscape. But quibbles aside, these performances stand up to almost any of the past, and send a strong message that the Singapore Symphony ranks with the best in the West. Robert Markow