TV REVIEW : R. Strauss, via Barenboim

Tough, muscular and not entirely appealing accounts of three tone poems by Richard Strauss form the bulk of “Barenboim Conducts Strauss,” two one-hour programs played back-to-back tonight at 8 on KVCR-TV Channel 24 and at 9 on KCET-TV Channel 28 and KPBS-TV Channel 15.

The first hour is devoted to “Don Juan” and “Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche”; the second to “Ein Heldenleben.” Both programs were taped in the Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany, during a 1992 European tour by the Chicago Symphony and its music director, Daniel Barenboim.

In a short interview during the first hour, the conductor explains his approach to Strauss. “I build the pieces,” he says, “in a purely abstract musical form, and when that works, the story is clear, and when that doesn’t work, the story is not clear. But it doesn’t work the other way around.”

Well, it may or may not work the other way around, but the conductor is wrong. His “abstract approach”--which is an accurate enough description of what he does--yields little sense of story, character, drama or event.

There is hardly any seductiveness, heroism, joie de vivre or sensual appeal in Barenboim’s “Don Juan,” for instance.

“Till” emerges as driven and tightly disciplined, but lacking in exuberance, humor or irony.

“Heldenleben” perhaps comes off best because of Barenboim’s big, long-breathed lines and grand conception. But there is little interiority of emotion or spirit. Ruben Gonzalez plays the prominent violin solo strongly but without much tenderness or warmth.

The granite-faced, generally undemonstrative Barenboim allows himself a few expressive liberties in this work, however.

He clutches and bites the air at the cymbal crash in the recollection of a “Don Juan” theme in “The Hero’s Works of Peace” (subtitles are briefly projected for each of the six sections of “Heldenleben”).

He looks annoyed when a harp--yes, a harp--plays too loudly. He mirrors the composer’s anger in the outburst at the start of “The Hero’s Retreat and Fulfillment.”

Otherwise, a sense of objective restraint prevails. On all occasions, the orchestra plays with brilliance, precision, clarity and gorgeous sound. The first program also opens with a disconcertingly speedy run-down of Strauss’ life, drawing on historical photographs and films (including Strauss playing cards at his home in Bavaria).

But later, in both programs, these bare facts are amplified through actor Werner Klemperer’s reading of letters and postcards the composer sent to his family, and by brief interviews with Barenboim, conductor Pierre Boulez, Strauss biographer Kurt Wilhelm and Strauss’ grandson (named after the composer).