Classical album review: Richard Strauss

Sages and songwriters have warned us of judging books by their covers; the same holds true for a recent CD of Richard Strauss.

Here, the eye is drawn to Anna Netrebko wandering in the snow in classic distraught diva mode. Photographer Kristian Schuller is duly credited and we are told the Russian soprano wears jewellery by Chopard, even if none is visible.

The extravagant gown, billowing out in a train that could well conceal accompanist and Steinway, is dazzling.

Netrebko has star billing on this album (her name colour co-ordinated with the dress) but her Four Last Songs takes up less than a third of the disc.

Recorded live, with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim, her occasionally swooping vocal opulence will not disappoint hardcore fans, but some may wish for subtler inflections. Where is the delicate mix of nostalgia, rapture and wonder in the first song, a setting of Hermann Hesse's Spring?

Put this performance beside favourites -- Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's and Jessye Norman's in my case -- and one becomes aware of the lack of finesse in Netrebko's phrasing, as well as a tonal sameness that runs through the set.

A full 46 minutes of the composer's Ein Heldenleben will hardly lure the casual punter to reach for the wallet but, in fact, the youthful vigour of this symphonic poem contrasts splendidly with the songs that precede it.

Inspired by Beethoven's Eroica, the 34-year-old composer was careful to stress that his "Hero's Life" was based "not on a single or historical figure, but rather a more general and free ideal of great and manly heroism".

Indeed, testosterone positively gushes in places, as we move through a man's life in times of love, war, peace and eventually, death. Being a live recording, there is no studio sheen on the strings, and the microphone even picks up Barenboim's spasmodic crooning.

Yet there is a palpable sense of occasion; nowhere more so than when ace woodwind players spar in the second section of the work, portraying the hero's malicious, and malevolent adversaries.

With enemies like these, who needs friends?

Richard Strauss
Anna Netrebko, Daniel Barenboim (Deutsche Grammophon)

Verdict: A lavish tribute to the ultimate Romantic does not always meet the mark.