BaL 22.01.11 - Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie

[Nick Armstrong]

Something a bit different. A horn-playing friend attended a week’s residential summer school in St Jean de Luz, which featured a ‘prestige concert’ by a crack team of brass players, “Cuivres en Pays Basque”... which featured a brass arrangement of Eine Alpensinfonie. I was given to understand that it was an arrangement done for the group (I’d be interested to know if in fact it’s wider-known).

The performance has recently been shared on YouTube:

I wonder in particular what Alpie and BBM think!

[BBMmk2]

Something a bit different. A horn-playing friend attended a week’s residential summer school in St Jean de Luz, which featured a ‘prestige concert’ by a crack team of brass players, “Cuivres en Pays Basque”... which featured a brass arrangement of Eine Alpensinfonie. I was given to understand that it was an arrangement done for the group (I’d be interested to know if in fact it’s wider-known).

The performance has recently been shared on YouTube:

I wonder in particular what Alpie and BBM think!

This sounds great, Cal! Look at that tuba mute! I’ve laced music that required these. Very weird but this sounds fantastic!

[Flay]

Alpie, what do you think the echoing/descending flute and E-flat clarinet (& downwards through the woodwind) shriek represents? It happens on the Alpine Pasture just before #57 on the score and repeats rather more softly at #142, just before night sets in.

An eagle?

I listened again to that joint Hallé & BBC Phil performance the other day while tackling the not-so-Alpine Woodhead Pass. What an event that concert was!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

If Alpie put all of his recordings in a pile he may have his own mountain to scale. Here is hoping that you find lodgings soon

I've found a new home now, and I've got the CDs back too, so I'm hoping to finish my reviews of all 104 recordings.

Alpie, what do you think the echoing/descending flute and E-flat clarinet (& downwards through the woodwind) shriek represents? It happens on the Alpine Pasture just before #57 on the score and repeats rather more softly at #142, just before night sets in.

An eagle?

I listened again to that joint Hallé & BBC Phil performance the other day while tackling the not-so-Alpine Woodhead Pass. What an event that concert was!

It was indeed, but I neither heard nor saw a wind machine amongst the vast array of instruments.

Re the descending high woodwinds, I really don't know, and it's rather incongruous when it recurs near the end.

[Flay]

I've found a new home now, and I've got the CDs back too, so I'm hoping to finish my reviews of all 104 recordings.

That's good. I was going to ask if it was a downsize, but you probably needed a bigger house to accommodate your ever-expanding collection

Re the descending high woodwinds, I really don't know, and it's rather incongruous when it recurs near the end.

I cannot see anyone mentioning this descending phrase in the literature, which is odd as it is so prominent. Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what it may represent?

[Master Jacques]

I cannot see anyone mentioning this descending phrase in the literature, which is odd as it is so prominent. Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what it may represent?

A goat falling off a cliff?

[Flay]

A goat falling off a cliff?

Or Julie Andrews perhaps?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've been watching/listening to the Residentie Orchestra Den Hague; Neeme Järvi DVD performance. It's an antidote to the Philharmonia/Maazel 67 minute performance, in that it's rushed through in only 41 minutes, 39 seconds, which is more or less the same as Oskar Fried's pioneering 1925 recording. I don't think this work should be rushed, which is why I've slated the two recordings by Franz Welser-Möst. But Järvi does present a reasonable case for a brisk approach.

There's a new recording out this week by Vasily Petrenko and the Oslo Philharmonic. I'm looking forward to hearing it.

[Flay]

Wait for it... (with apologies to Alpie)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There's a recording posted on Wikipedia that I've never been able to locate (or even be sure that it's an official release) - that by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Choo Hoey. But this photo has convinced me of its existence, and Iwould like to buy a copy if possible. So if anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd be most grateful.

[HighlandDougie]

Downloading as I type - and with Vladimir Jurowski very much in mind in view of last night's Prom - his new recording (on Pentatone) of 'Eine Alpensinfonie' with the Berlin RSO. Recorded in the Berlin Konzerthaus on 22nd and 24th February 2019. We will await EA's considered judgement in due course of where it sits in the great pantheon of many. many recordings

[Wychwood]

Downloading as I type - and with Vladimir Jurowski very much in mind in view of last night's Prom - his new recording (on Pentatone) of 'Eine Alpensinfonie' with the Berlin RSO. Recorded in the Berlin Konzerthaus on 22nd and 24th February 2019. We will await EA's considered judgement in due course of where it sits in the great pantheon of many. many recordings

It's billed as Record of the Week on Record Review tomorrow morning.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Many thanks. SACD now ordered.

This is the 3rd Jurowski version.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's billed as Record of the Week on Record Review tomorrow morning.

I await it with eager anticipation. As it’s being fitted into a 20 minute slot, I’m wondering which bleeding chunk will be selected.

[Ein Heldenleben]

On now sounding good - I shall be listening on Qubuz later to the complete performance as part of my regular Saturday afternoon R3 switchover…