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.

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its Music Director Rafael Payare make their Pentatone debut with Mahler’s 5th Symphony. The album is also the first recording under Payare’s tenure, and the beginning of a longer recording relationship with the label. For Payare, the Fifth is the last symphony that shows Mahler still looking forward to what the future might bring, unlike his subsequent, much darker and existential works. Despite that optimism, there is enough tragedy and struggle along the way, resonating with Mahler’s life at the time of creation. Payare’s proficiency in late-Romantic repertoire coupled with the matured, distinctive sound of the Montréal players make this a collaboration to look out for.

Ideals of the French Revolution is the unusual title of this two-disc set by Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal of music by Beethoven with texts by Goethe, Matthisson, and Paul Griffiths. The second, fairly conventional disc includes three works by Beethoven that could reasonably be said to embody the ideals of liberté, égalité, fraternité: his Fifth Symphony, excerpts from his incidental music for Goethe's Egmont, and his fourth setting of Matthisson's Opferlied (Song of Sacrifice). The far less conventional first disc, however, features a single work, called The General, setting a text by the aforementioned Griffiths, noted author and Beethoven scholar, to music drawn from Beethoven's incidental music for Egmont, König Stephan, and Leonore Prohaska, plus the Opferlied.

Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal is well-known for his innovative concert programmes. Here he conducts the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for his third Beethoven project. After his two previous CD's with the titles "Ideals of the French Revolution" (Beethoven's Fifth Symphony & the Egmont overture) and "Gods, Heroes and Men" (Beethoven's Third and the ballet music "Creatures of Prometheus"), this new release is dedicated to the subject "In the Breath of Time". Featuring the “Pastorale” Symphony (No. 6) and the seldom performed 8th Symphony, this release consists of what are probably Beethoven's two sunniest symphonies.