BaL 22.01.11 - Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hmm. I hope you're laughing at the second sentence and not the first.

Of course he was, Bollie.

[Barbirollians]

I am still captivated by the Haitink performance on Newton Classics . It has such shape for what can be a sprawling piece .

[Alison]

I am still captivated by the Haitink performance on Newton Classics . It has such shape for what can be a sprawling piece .

Truly vintage Concertgebouw playing too.

[richardfinegold]

Strauss has been pulling me into his orbit recently. I was curious about the Alpine Symphony and plumped for this live recording:

Orchestra of the Tyrolean Festival/Gustav Kuhn on Col Legno.

Not having the stamina to trawl through this thread (it's been a long week), I hope the members won't mind if I ask them if they know this release. Sonnenuntergang, Ausklang and Nacht seem magical to me, especially in the context of a live recording; the ensuing applause sounds heartfelt.

By the way, my discovery of this wonderful Strauss work is largely due to Eine Alpensinfonie's presence on these boards. I think myself lucky he didn't call himself "Bolero".

He is also lucky that he didn't name himself after any compositions by Eric Satie. "There Pieces In The Shape Of A Pear" would be such a pain to type.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

From time to time, I skim through various online lists of recordings in the vain hope that someone has re-released long deleted recordings such as the very first Bohm, the Singapore SO/choo Hoey and the Baltimore SO/Alsop.

The frustration is not their lack of availablity - with such a rich array of other recordings available, whover would complain?

It's the mentaiity of Amazon, who sell their downloads of the work in separate tracks, randomly mixed up with other dowloaded mixed up recordings. It's quite ridiculous, as no sane person is ever going to buy a single track of this work. It merely snarls up the list. Fortunately the CD versions are listed near the beginning.

[Barbirollians]

From time to time, I skim through various online lists of recordings in the vain hope that someone has re-released long deleted recordings such as the very first Bohm, the Singapore SO/choo Hoey and the Baltimore SO/Alsop.

The frustration is not their lack of availablity - with such a rich array of other recordings available, whover would complain?

It's the mentaiity of Amazon, who sell their downloads of the work in separate tracks, randomly mixed up with other dowloaded mixed up recordings. It's quite ridiculous, as no sane person is ever going to buy a single track of this work. It merely snarls up the list. Fortunately the CD versions are listed near the beginning.

EA if you scroll up the page and click the department link to classical music - MP3s disappear leaving only tangible formats.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thanks. I'll try that.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The complete collection.

[visualnickmos]

This is truly impressive! I see you have the 'impossible to find' Ozawa included.

[vinteuil]

[SIZE=5]The complete collection.

... some of us, whose spouses deem them to have just the teensiest bit of an obsessive compulsive disorder, wd have been a little bit shy of being so self-revealing

[Thropplenoggin]

A (mountain) range of Alpensinfonies.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is truly impressive! I see you have the 'impossible to find' Ozawa included.

Just in case you are tempted to go for this, it's available at a much cheaper price in a 38 CD box of Ozawa performnaces. (You'd think they'd let you off the £1.26.)

Incidentally I don't rate this performance particularly highly. If it were the only one, maybe, but there are so many good ones to choose from.

[Richard Tarleton]

Marvellous. Not what Strauss had in mind but several of them go for the view of the Matterhorn from Zermatt for the cover - as does EA for his avatar - such a beautiful mountain, it's not hard to see how it has exercised such a hold on the imaginations of a century of mountaineers - the churchyard in Zermatt full of the graves of twenty-something Englishmen who perished in the attempt. I've walked, er, past it, on the last stage of our Tour of Monte Rosa.

[Roehre]

Marvellous. Not what Strauss had in mind but several of them go for the view of the Matterhorn from Zermatt for the cover - as does EA for his avatar - such a beautiful mountain, it's not hard to see how it has exercised such a hold on the imaginations of a century of mountaineers ....

It's an even better Avatar than you probably think, Richard.
It's the sleeve of an LP of the Alpensinfonie, performed by the Royal Philharmonic/Kempe on RCA LSC2923

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

That's the one, seen at the top of post 263.