The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its Music Director Rafael Payare extend their Pentatone discography with a recording of Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben and Gustav Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, sung by superstar soprano Sonya Yoncheva. The pairing of works may seem odd at first, with Strauss at his most exuberant and Mahler at his most introspective. They share, however, a deeply personal and autobiographical approach by two giants of fin-de-siècle music coming to terms with the world they lived in and their place in it. After their acclaimed recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Payare and the orchestra further explore this late-Romantic repertoire that fits them like a glove.

Recorded with a stellar cast, one of the brightest and most insightful conductors of our day and a specialist handpicked orchestra playing at their best in the stunning venue of Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (July 2015), Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s “completely gripping, high-contrast” Figaro is “a brilliant triumph”, wrote Badische Zeitung of the July 2015 concert performance recorded here, while heaping praise on Luca Pisaroni’s “thrilling” Figaro, Thomas Hampson’s Count “illuminating every word”, Sonya Yoncheva’s Countess “recalling Callas’s vocal colours”, Angela Brower’s “fascinatingly delicate, sensitive” Cherubino and Anne Sofie von Otter’s “wonderfully perceptive, charming Marcellina”, all in a performance “crowned” by Christiane Karg’s “enchanting” Susanna and Rolando Villazón as Basilio, who “had the audience at his feet”.

Gabriel Fauré considered Umberto Giordano’s Siberia to be one of the most interesting and singular works of the early 20th century. The opera’s tragic narrative follows Prince Alexis’s courtesan Stephana. She falls in love with an innocent soldier, Vassili, who is sent to Siberia for killing the Prince. Stephana gives up her life of luxury to follow him but cannot escape her past. With its intensely Russian atmosphere and passionately soaring melodies, Siberia was Giordano’s favorite among his operas. This acclaimed Fiorentino production was greeted with multiple ovations.