Bernard Haitink’s 1970 Ein Heldenleben with the Concertgebouw is tremendously well played, and it’s good to hear a performance from a conductor who doesn’t present the piece as a kind of musical Mein Kampf. It’s an ideal antidote to self-glorifying Heldenlebens like Karajan’s or Mehta’s, and you’ll value Haitink’s unfolding of this score highly if you see the piece as more ironic (“I’m not made for battle” Strauss told Romain Rolland) than combative. The Concertgebouw has a great tradition in Strauss, and in this work in particular, so you can expect nothing less than absolute technical perfection from this orchestra. Haitink’s approach is lighter in texture than Karajan’s, and the recording lets you hear clearly whenever cellos double the horns (who usually cover them) as the main theme evolves. Important details for clarinets, bassoons, second and third trumpets, and harp register properly, all before the exposition has ended. Haitink’s adversarial critics seem less tetchy than Karajan’s; the Concertgebouw tubas rasp discontentedly, but the well-balanced and truthful recording doesn’t suddenly push them into the foreground in this section as DG tended to do for Karajan.
Among violin soloists, Michel Schwalbé (Karajan/DG), Joseph Silverstein (Ozawa/Philips), and Herman Krebbers are all superb. Silverstein is more sinuous and lustrous, but Krebbers is the best of the three in his characterization of Pauline Strauss’ rapidly changing moods, transforming her in seconds from coquettish harridan to submissive lover. The battle scene is thrilling, and Haitink delays the return of the main theme more dramatically than almost any rival. His review of the hero’s “works of peace” intelligibly catalogs themes from Strauss’ earlier works, carefully balancing dynamics to make each thematic strand clearly audible–how many less-familiar ones (like the “Guntram” quotes) can you identify here? The coupling, a digitally recorded Tod und Verklarüng from 1981, also is excellently played and recorded, with one of the best-prepared final climaxes on disc engendering a mood of total repose at the end of a gripping performance.
