Downloadable alpine symphony

This release includes a digital booklet. Manage settings Accept all. Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie Alpine Symphony. Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Vladimir Jurowski. Did Jurowski need to record the work again after his spectacular London Philharmonic Orchestra two-disc set?

The production here gives one good reason; the other is the pacing, never rushed Record Review. Gramophone Magazine. International Classical Music Awards. Add SACD to basket. Add download to basket. Night 1 [Live]. Written in , this work describes for us eleven hours of adventures of a mountain climber. Strauss composed the Alpine in a time of his life in which he was centred in his operas. For this reason, more than being a descriptive work of the adventures of a mountaineer, The Alpine is an opera without voices, in which a brave protagonist faces the forces of nature.

In fact, Strauss was not biographically alien to the world of the mountain: in , he built a house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bavaria , one of his favourite places to compose. On the other hand, the imaginary hero of this symphony has an undeniable coexistence with Nietzsche's Zarathustra, a hermit who makes nature, often inhospitable, into his refuge.

As Norman Del Mar points out, "the fanfares are wholly non-motivic and neither the hunting horns nor their phrases are heard again throughout the work". The use of unique musical motives and instrumentation in this passage reinforces the idea of distance created by the offstage placement—these sounds belong to a party of people on an entirely different journey. Upon entering the wood there is an abrupt change of texture and mood—the "instrumental tones deepen as thick foliage obscures the sunlight".

A new meandering theme is presented by the horns and trombones followed by a more relaxed version of the marching theme. Birdcalls are heard in the upper woodwinds and a solo string quartet leads the transition into the next musical section. The following portion of the piece can be interpreted as a large development-like section which encompasses several different phases of the climb. In "Wandering by the Brook" there is an increasing sense of energy—rushing passage-work gives way to cascading scale figures in the winds and strings and marks the beginning of the section which takes place "At the Waterfall".

The brilliant, glittering instrumental writing in this passage makes it one of the most "vividly specific" moments of tone painting within An Alpine Symphony. The later section "On Flowering Meadows" also makes extensive use of orchestral pictorialism—the meadow is suggested by a gentle backdrop of high string chords, the marching theme is heard softly in the cellos, and isolated points of color short notes in the winds, harp, and pizzicato in the violas, representing small Alpine flowers dot the landscape.

In the following section, which takes place "On the Alpine Pasture", the use of cowbells, bird calls, a yodeling motive, and even the bleating of sheep depicted through flutter tonguing in the oboe and E-flat clarinet creates both a strong visual and aural image.

As the climbers move along the going gets a bit rougher, however, and in "Dangerous Moments" the idea of insecurity and peril is cleverly suggested by the fragmentary nature of the texture and the use of the pointed second climbing theme.

Suddenly we are "On the Summit" as four trombones present a theme known as "the peak motive", the shape of which with its powerful upward leaps of fourths and fifths is reminiscent of Strauss's famous opening to Also Sprach Zarathustra. This passage is the centerpiece of the score, and after a solo oboe stammers out a hesitant melody the section gradually builds up using a succession of themes heard previously in the piece, finally culminating in what Del Mar calls the "long-awaited emotional climax of the symphony": a recapitulation of the sun theme, now gloriously proclaimed in C Major.

With a sudden switch of tonality to F Major, however, the piece is propelled into the next section, entitled "Vision. It is during this portion of the piece that the organ first enters, adding even more depth to Strauss's already enormous performing forces.