As the penultimate track on this often thrilling recital, Renée Fleming sings Strauss’s rethink of Zueignung, orchestrated in 1940 as a tribute to the soprano Viorica Ursuleac. Instead of the poet Hermann von Gilm’s words, Strauss substituted “du wunderbare Helena!”, referring to Ursuleac’s performance in Die ägyptische Helena. This soaring, ecstatic phrase is just the sort of thing that Fleming has developed as a speciality, and she caps it with the famous aria from Act 2 of Helena, “Zweite Brautnacht!” in which Helen of Troy celebrates her reunion with Menelaus. This was famously recorded in the 1960s by Leontyne Price, and to say that Fleming’s voice has something of the same richness and sensuality is only a compliment.

The other opera extract, and the best thing on the disc in my opinion, is the big scene from Ariadne auf Naxos, and this is surely a part that Fleming must take on stage soon. She has developed her lower register so that the section in which Ariadne anticipates the arrival of Hermes is especially effective. At the end, of course, the great arching phrases of “Du nimm es von mir” are wonderfully achieved.

As Fleming explains in a note, the Four Last Songs has become the work that she has performed most often. She first recorded them with Eschenbach (RCA, 3/97). At the opening of “Frühling” the new burnished quality she brings is quite surprising. Throughout the four songs, Fleming not only lavishes every resource of tonal richness at her command, but she seems to be urging all sorts of extra details from the text. This may seem excessive for some tastes, with even the hint of a sob towards the end of “September”. The sound is stupendous, Fleming’s voice complemented by the Munich Orchestra, with Thielemann bringing out every detail in Strauss’s nostalgic orchestration.