Recorded live in Hamer Hall in February and March of last year, this first offering from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s own recording label combines, in very convincing fashion indeed, two song cycles from two very different composers at opposite ends of their careers.

What binds them are not only the familiar big themes of love and loss but the ravishing performances by Australian soprano Siobhán Stagg and the MSO under Chief Conductor Jaime Martín.

Debussy’s youthful set of six melodies the Ariettes oubliées (published 1903) adorn the words of Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine; Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs from 1948 set poetry by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff.

Brett Dean’s 2015 orchestration preserves much of the delicacy and intimacy of Debussy’s songs while amplifying some of their more passionate effusions; Strauss’s predominantly lush, full-blooded soundscape features more subtle soloistic and chamber-like passages. So, lots of contrasts and symmetries despite the vast stylistic differences (the music of Wagner is another common factor, but each composer took very different lessons from the master).