Ein Heldenleben (with Webern - Im Sommerwind)

"The playing could not be subtler or more refined, with Haitink putting his distinctive stamp on the performances. The wonderful gradations of dynamic are meticulously controlled, with the strings in particular sounding glorious...A first-rate disc demonstrating the glory of orchestral music-making in the United States, a model for the rest of the world." Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine, October 2010

"The way [Haitink] delineates Strauss's polyphony is very impressive, bringing out the counterpoints and subsidiary voices with nothing short of exemplary clarity. The orchestral sound is magnificent in SACD, quite stunning in the battle sequence...Haitink renders a performance of great dignity and tenderness [in the Webern]" BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 ****/*

Hot on the heels of an Editor's Choice for his Alpine Symphony, Bernard Haitink conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the world's greatest Strauss ensembles, in Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life) whose US première it gave in 1900. The CSO pours out a lush interpretation of Richard Strauss's large and complex tone poem in their newest live recording. Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink leads with restraint and allows the strings and woodwinds to sing. In the famous Battle Scene, the brass and percussion roar, while concertmaster Robert Chen paints his violin solos depicting Strauss' wife, Pauline, with tender beauty. Webern's early tone poem Im Sommerwind is indebted to Strauss's rhapsodic romanticism and overflows with spacious melodies. A musical force in Chicago and around the world, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the finest international orchestras.

"Haitink worked his customary miracles on behalf of Richard Strauss and the CSO gave him what it always gives him: superb and deeply felt playing… In Webern's Im Sommerwind, Haitink asked for a refined beauty of sound and got it in abundance." Chicago Tribune Concert Review

Haitink moulds [Im Sommerwind] exquisitely, while the Chicago string players spin diaphanous curtains of sound." The Guardian, 17th June 2010 ****