William Dart: Birthday offerings mixed bag

Telarc has always prided itself on the naturalness and transparency of its sound and, to celebrate turning 21, the American label has cleaned out its cupboards and launched mid-price reissues of some older recordings. September's batch features a lush trio of Wagner, Strauss and Schoenberg - well over three hours of surround-sound to luxuriate in.

It seemed strange in 1989 to record only the first act of Wagner's Die Walkure, and seems even stranger 13 years later to reissue it.

On the credit side, Lorin Maazel draws a resonant performance from the Pittsburgh Symphony, taking full advantage of its lusty horn section. The cast, however, is less than exciting; Susan Dunn, Klaus Konig and Peter Meven seem like also-rans.

Dunn is a plodding Sieglinde - there are moments of startling freshness in the mezzo piano range and some bewitchingly sexy sounds when she ventures below middle C, but too much is just note reading. Konig's Siegmund has a vibrato wide enough to act as a gateway to Valhalla and is not too squeamish about changing the odd note.

Second up is Andre Previn's Strauss album with the Vienna Philharmonic. This is a 1988 recording and, despite the meticulous recording details (the power amplifier was a Threshhold S/500 Stasis, series II, would you believe it), the Austrian musicians sometimes sound as if they were playing through the seven veils of Salome.

Previn attacks Ein Heldenleben with American gusto but this is a work which, even with the best advocates in the world, sorely tests the listener at almost 40 minutes. Arleen Auger's Four Last Songs is lacklustre. There are neither Renee Fleming's creamy scoops or Elizabeth Schwarzkopf's elegant purity; Auger seems distanced emotionally and cast in the shadow of an overwhelming orchestra.

Finally, a chance to meet Schoenberg at his most audience friendly. The Romantic Schoenberg features not Pierrot Lunaire and Erwartung but Verklarte Nacht and Pelleas and Melisande, played by the Atlanta Symphony under Joel Levi.

This regional orchestra, which boasts 76 CDs on its website, is a band with style. A glorious Verklarte Nacht showcases a string section that should have A-list orchestras dashing across the Mason-Dixon Line on a recruiting trip. This is the most recent of the three albums, and it shows in the extraordinary definition of Schoenberg's complex textures.

Pelleas and Melisande is a 40-minute monster of a work, and a magnificent monster at that. It's interesting that, for all his grandiloquence and gargantuan orchestral forces, Schoenberg never trips into Straussian bombast, and again Telarc catches the work in all its shimmering colours and moods. A superb disc at full price, a bargain at reissue rates.

* Wagner, Die Walkure Act I (Telarc CD 80258); Strauss, Ein Heldenleben, Four Last Songs (Telarc CD 80180); The Romantic Schoenberg (Telarc CD 80372)