STRAUSS

An Alpine Symphony

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Bernard Haitink

Richard Strauss’s dazzling tone poem An Alpine Symphony, composed between 1911 and 1915, depicts the changing moods of a mountain landscape during the ascent and descentof an Alpine peak. Inspired by an expedition in his youth, it begins with ‘a sunrise in Switzerland’ and ends with sunset the same day. Its extraordinary sonic imagery graphically portrays the excitement of the journey, the sights and sounds of nature on the way and the majesty of the surroundings, from cowbells in the meadow and gentle mountain streams to the violent storm that engulfs the climbers on the way down. An Alpine Symphony didn’t become part of the core repertoire until the digital era, partly because of the immense orchestral forces required, but now it is now one of Richard Strauss’s most popular orchestral works.

Bernard Haitink’s legendary partnership with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has produced many great recordings over the years. This reading of An Alpine Symphony was first released in 1985, to great acclaim. The Gramophone reviewer described it as ‘quite simply the finest performance I have encountered’. Haitink is a seasoned Strauss conductor, and his Mahlerian experience shows in the way he is able to capture all the details of the complex score with great lucidity, whilst never losing sight of the overall structure of the piece.

‘Haitink’s account … is a splendid affair, a very natural-sounding recording and strongly characterised throughout. The perspective is excellent, and there is plenty of atmosphere, particularly in the episode of the calm before the storm. Above all, the architecture of the work as a whole is impressively laid out and the orchestral playing is magnificent. This can hold its own with the best.’ Penguin CD Guide

‘Haitink goes beyond the music’s graphic outlines and penetrates to the creative impulse which seized the composer originally.’

‘This outstanding interpretation, visionary and noble, is backed by a recording which concentrates not on brilliant highlights but on a fully balanced and rounded sound quality to do justice to the superb playing of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. The luxuriant and beautifully flexible strings, with their rich tone in all sections, sound as natural as at a live performance, while brass and woodwind are equally faithfully captured by the microphones. The oboe solo in “On the summit”, with its powerfully significant pauses, is not only magnificently played but is phrased with immaculate musicianship.’

Gramophone, April 1986

Newton Classics 8802054