Composed in 1898 and premiered the following year, Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) is one of Richard Strauss’ most astonishing orchestral tone poems. It’s essentially autobiographical in nature, the hero being the composer himself (despite being a mere 35 when he wrote it). Strauss takes mocking swipes at critics in “Des Helden Widersacher” (“The Hero’s Adversaries”), and in “Des Helden Gefährtin” (“The Hero’s Companion”) paints a tender portrait of his wife Pauline. Strauss also gives us also a whistlestop tour of his previous hits, weaving in quotes from Don Quixote, Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel and more. It all adds up to an engrossing, almost cinematic experience, of which Payare takes full advantage, eliciting grand and exceptionally detailed technicolour sound from the Montréal Symphony Orchestra (hats off to the recording engineer). No less impressive is their performance of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, a collection of songs setting the melancholic poems of Friedrich Rückert. Here, they’re ravishingly sung by the Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, her soaring voice beautifully complementing the players’ alchemic ensemble work.