RECORDINGS

Here is a “Heldenleben” for now. Richard Strauss in his tone poem had conflated the artist, namely a composer like himself, into a Nietzschean Superman living the hero’s life, battling critics and drawing inspiration from his mate. But Daugherty, a composer besotted with pop culture (his opera, “Jackie O.,” had its premiere in Houston two weeks ago), needs no metaphor. He’s portraying the real Superman, the one invented by D.C. Comics. The first four movements of the symphony, written four years ago, revolve around the super villain Lex Luthor, the planet Krypton, the fifth-dimension troublemaker Mxyzptik and, of course, Lois Lane. The finale, a weird tango based upon the Dies Irae theme, is a musical depiction of Superman’s dance to the death with Doomsday. Each movement is made to stand alone and is better off when it does, since 42 minutes of such antics is a bit too much. Still, this is music as animated and brilliantly illustrated as the best comic books once were, and its injection of noisy modern, pop-music effects into the symphonic world is as striking as the kinds of racket Strauss loved to make. Why, one wonders, hasn’t the Hollywood Bowl management discovered it yet?