Ein Heldenleben

Two deeply personal works by giants of the fin-de-siècle The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its music director Rafael Payare expand their Pentatone discography with a recording of Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben and Gustav Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, sung by soprano Sonya Yoncheva. The combination of these works seems strange at first glance, since Strauss is the most exuberant and Mahler the most introspective. What they have in common, however, is the deeply personal and autobiographical approach of two giants from the music of the fin-de-siècle who come to terms with the world in which they lived and their place in it. Following their acclaimed recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, Payare and the orchestra continue to explore this late-Romantic repertoire, which is tailor-made for them. Unique to this project is the participation of Sonya Yoncheva, an opera star who appears for the first time on a recording of German orchestral song.