No More Heroes

Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben ( A Hero's Life ) is looked upon by many as an autobiographic ego trip of monstrous propoortions. It is certainly a tempting weapon to use if you happen not to be favourably disposed to Strauss for musical or extra-musical reasons. It is certainly a massive sprawl;ing effort for huge orchestral resources and epitomises late romantic style to such an extent as to border on kitsch. But here it finds perhaps its' ideal interpretors in the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Christian Thielemann. Thielemann himself has an ambiguous public image with some political controversy and more than a hint of teutonic arrogance but he makes a vigorous defence of the piece in his sleeve notes and if you want to luxuriate in a de luxe orchestral sound, here it is. The other piece on the disk is the Symphonic Fantasy From "Die Frau Ohne Schatten". This is another lushly orchestrated romantic piece formed from themes in the opera to produce a concert piece that would have an independant life and again it finds the right band and leader to do it justice.