BaL 22.01.11 - Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Very well indeed, thank you. There was awe and wonder around the room, and members of the audience wanted to know whether the rest of the work was as good as the excerpt they'd heard - and they wondered why they'd never heard it before.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

From time to time, I receive PMs, asking me to recommend "the best" version. Clearly, I'd feel bad about people spending their own money on my recommendation, and ending up disappointed. For this reason, I reply with a shortlist. I've now extended this to include every recording, placing them into four tiers.

I've put the DG Karajan into the second tier, even though I'm in a minority of one here, but HvK's DVD version is up there in the top tier. But it's only a personal selection. (You may well love the Andrew Davis and Hans Welser-Most performances.)

TOP TIER
Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Barenboim
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam; Bernard Haitink
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; Andreas Delfs
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Herbert von Karajan (DVD)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Rudolf Kempe
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Hans Knappertsbush
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Seiji Ozawa
Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra; Frank Shipway
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart; Carl Schuricht
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra; Horst Stein
Ensemble Modern Orchestra; Markus Stenz
Orchester des Reichssenders München; Richard Strauss
Staatskapelle Dresden; Christian Thielemann (DVD/Blu Ray)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Christian Thielemann
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Christian Thielemann (DVD/Blu Ray)
Tonhalle Orchestra; David Zinman (CD & DVD pictorial versions)


SECOND TIER
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; Herbert Blomstedt
American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstei
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln; Semyon Bychkov
Philadelphia Orchestra; Charles Dutoit
Philharmonisches Orchester des Theaters Altenburg – Gera; Gabriel Feltz
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra; Hartmut Haenchen
London Symphony Orchestra; Bernard Haitink
Saito Kinen Orchestra, Daniel Harding
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Jakun Hrusa
L’Orchestra de la Suisse Romande: Eliahu Inbal
Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France; Marek Janowski
Residentie Orchestra Den Hague; Neeme Järvi (DVD)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Herbert von Karajan (CD)
Staatskapelle Dresden; Rudolf Kempe
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; Kazimierz Kord
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Zdenek Košler
Orchestre der Tiroler Festpiele Erl, Gustav Kuhn
Staatskapelle Dresden; Fabio Luisi
BBC Symphony Orchestra; Norman Del Mar
Orchestre National de France; Kurt Masur
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra; Yevgeny Mravinsky
Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin; Kent Nagano (DVD)
Goteborgs Symfonica; Kent Nagano
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Andris Nelsons
Kanagawa University Symphonic Band, Toshiro Ozawa
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; André Previn
Philadelphia Orchestra; André Previn
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Lorin Maazel
Czech National Symphony Orchestra; Marcello Rota
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Gerard Schwarz
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Georg Solti
Bayerisches Staatskapelle; Richard Strauss
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra; Emil Tabakov
NKH Symphony Orchestra; Yuzo Toyama
Minnesota Orchestra; Edo de Waart
Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra; Edo de Waart
Staatskapelle Weimer; Antoni Wit


THIRD TIER
Staatsorchester Braunschweig; Jonas Alber
NDR Symphony Orchestra; Takashi Asahina
Cleveland Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy
Orchestre Philharmonique de Liege; Pierre Bartholomée
RIAS Symphonieorchester; Karl Böhm
Staatskapelle Dresden; Karl Böhm
Philharmonisches Orchester der Hansestadt Lübeck, Roman Brogli-Sacher
Dresdner Philharmonic; Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
London Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Vienna Symphony Orchestra; Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Gôteborgs Symphoniker; Friedrich Haider
Pittsburg Symphony; Marek Janowski
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra; Mariss Jansons
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariss Jansons
Scottish National Orchestra; Neeme Järvi
Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris; Philippe Jordan
European Community Youth Orchestra; James Judd
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain; Andrew Litton
Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra; Dimitri Mitropoulos
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Dimitri Mitropoulos
Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra; Saccani
Staatskapelle Dresden; Guiseppi Sinopoli (CD)
Staatskapelle Dresden; Guiseppi Sinopoli (DVD)
USSR SO, Evgeni Svetlanov

FOURTH (BOTTOM) TIER
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Andrew Davis
Berlin State Opera Orchestra; Oskar Fried
Orchestra Dell’Opera di Stato Bavarese; Konwitschny
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; Zubin Mehta
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Zubin Mehta
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester; Franz Welser-Möst
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Franz Welser-Möst

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Very well indeed, thank you. There was awe and wonder around the room, and members of the audience wanted to know whether the rest of the work was as good as the excerpt they'd heard - and they wondered why they'd never heard it before.

- I'd encountered the work in a broadcast (on a Mono transistor radio ) in my teens and had casually dismissed it as a noisy, second-rate work. I didn't hear it again until Richard Osborne introduced the Karajan recording on a Record Review in 1980/81 - using the same excerpt as you chose: I was instantly hooked, overwhelmed with the power and beauty of what I heard, and it's been a favourite piece ever since. I've never heard it Live, so I'm looking forward to OrchOpNorth's performance in Leeds Town Hall next year. (I so wish that they still called themselves the "Northern Philharmonia" - "OON" and "OrchOpNorth" don't sound very elegant! The latter looks like "Orch Oop North"!)

Interesting to see Barenboim amongst the summit reachers; I haven't heard that version.

[Pianoman]

Can't believe my first encounter with Alpine Symphony was in Blackpool - Ripley's Odditorium if memory serves. There was some sort of biblical scene with puppets, and the summit section played on a loop ! Even at that age, I had to know what this music was...

[visualnickmos]

A great listing, Alpie - that's the way to do a BaL!!!

I'm just about to read it 'in depth' and see if I can stretch the purse strings - again....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Interesting to see Barenboim amongst the summit reachers; I haven't heard that version.

It sounds the way I imagine Furtwangler would have conducted the work.

[Hitch]

I am pleased that the Orchestre der Tiroler Festpiele Erl, Gustav Kuhn recording made it into your second tier, Alpie. Now to explore the top tier. Where did I put my crampons?

[Stanfordian]

Hiya Eine Alpensinfonie,

This is a much maligned work that I enjoy hearing when the opportunity arises.

In 2014 I was privileged to report from two performances. In Manchester Juanjo Mena conducted the joint forces of the BBC Philharmonic and Hallé and a few months later in Dresden Maestro Thielemann conducting (without a score) the world class Staatskapelle Dresden.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Hiya Eine Alpensinfonie,

This is a much maligned work that I enjoy hearing when the opportunity arises.

It certainly used to be maligned, and few conductors would touch it until the 1970s. That all seems to have changed.

In 2014 I was privileged to report from two performances. In Manchester Juanjo Mena conducted the joint forces of the BBC Philharmonic and Hallé and a few months later in Dresden Maestro Thielemann conducting (without a score) the world class Staatskapelle Dresden.

I was at the Manchester concert. It was simply stunning to hear it played by such a vast orchestra, but it was strange that there was apparently no wind machine.

As for Thielemann, that must have been quite something.

[Richard Tarleton]

As for Thielemann, that must have been quite something.

There's a double-page interview with Thielemann by Anna Picard in today's Times - paywall, you'll have to buy it

[Stanfordian]

It certainly used to be maligned, and few conductors would touch it until the 1970s. That all seems to have changed.



I was at the Manchester concert. It was simply stunning to hear it played by such a vast orchestra, but it was strange that there was apparently no wind machine.

As for Thielemann, that must have been quite something.

Hiya Eine Alpensinfonie,

I'd forgotten a third concert that I attended in 2015 by Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko at Preston Guild Hall. So that was three in a season not bad going eh! Should change my moniker to 'Stanford's Alpensinfonie'.

When I said much maligned I has thinking more of how unfrequently it is generally programmed. How many performances would the 'Alpine' have had without the concerts generated by Strauss’s 150th anniversary in the 2014/15 season?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When I said much maligned I has thinking more of how unfrequently it is generally programmed. How many performances would the 'Alpine' have had without the concerts generated by Strauss’s 150th anniversary in the 2014/15 season?

True, but I suspect that's largely due to the cost of hiring all those extra players.

[BBMmk2]

I would love this work to be c/w RVW's Sinfonia Antartica!

[Barbirollians]

I see a good but not great review for the new Nagano in Gramophone this week .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I see a good but not great review for the new Nagano in Gramophone this week .

It's preferable to Nagano's DVD version in that the orchestra isn't turned upside down during the thunderstorm. (I kid you not)