BaL 22.01.11 - Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie

[gradus]

I heard it from the Storm onwards and was err ... blown away.
In truth a magnificent performance.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've just ordered another recording: Leipzig Gewandhaus/Nelsons, but it was an expensive purchase, as it was in a 7CD boxset. However it does have the benefit of including Aus Italien, which was never one of the fillers on the "mountain' of other recordings of the later work.

[Alison]

Boston Symphony Alpie.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Boston Symphony Alpie.

Oops. Yes!

[symphony1010]

Sorry, I haven't trawled through all 47(!) pages of this thread but has this one come up yet? It's a BBCMM CD from 1991 with Jansons and the BBC Welsh. I used to play it to musical friends and say. 'What do you think? Berlin, Chicago, Vienna?' Nope!
I uploaded it some years ago - see what you think. Try 20 minutes in if time is short.

https://youtu.be/KAkk83xf6J4

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sorry, I haven't trawled through all 47(!) pages of this thread but has this one come up yet? It's a BBCMM CD from 1991 with Jansons and the BBC Welsh. I used to play it to musical friends and say. 'What do you think? Berlin, Chicago, Vienna?' Nope!
I uploaded it some years ago - see what you think. Try 20 minutes in if time is short.
https://youtu.be/KAkk83xf6J4

The Jansons/BBC Welsh was first mentioned in Petrushka's #3 in this thread.

[symphony1010]

Thanks for that! I expected 47 pages would cover pretty much everything!

[smittims]

'One to Avoid' as BBc Music Magazine used to say, is, in my opinion, Solti. Usually so good in Strauss, he seems to have felt this work is in danger of outstaying its welcome so he tends to rush it all through.

[Bryn]

'One to Avoid' as BBc Music Magazine used to say, is, in my opinion, Solti. Usually so good in Strauss, he seems to have felt this work is in danger of outstaying its welcome so he tends to rush it all through.

Maybe ideal for the earphones during today's Great North Run, then?

[teamsaint]

Maybe ideal for the earphones during today's Great North Run, then?

Even a run through a late period Maazel would put pressure on EAs undoubted running ability in a 13 miler…….

[cloughie]

'One to Avoid' as BBc Music Magazine used to say, is, in my opinion, Solti. Usually so good in Strauss, he seems to have felt this work is in danger of outstaying its welcome so he tends to rush it all through.

Nah, Solti’s recordings were never ‘ones to be avoided’. Always worth a listen - often quicker than many, but rarely dull!

[smittims]

Well, each to his own, cloughie, but fast can sometimes be dull, this year's Prom 9th symphony for instance (IMHO).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Even a run through a late period Maazel would put pressure on EAs undoubted running ability in a 13 miler…….

Actually, that’s just about the speed I was doing yesterday.

But returning to rushing the Alpine Symphony, perhaps the worst culprit is Franz Welser-Möst, whose sunset sounds like a cataclysmic solar disaster, or perhaps he thought the mountaineers were being carried down by an avalanche.

[Pulcinella]

This work is the subject of BaL in the Christmas 2024 edition of BBC MM.

Malcolm Hayes made the judgement.

The best recording:
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa (1996, Philips)

Three other great recordings:
Dresden Staatskapelle, Rudolf Kempe (1971, Warner)
Pittsburgh SO, Marek Janowski (2009, Pentatone)
Berlin PO, Herbert von Karajan (1980, DG)

One to avoid (he says 'not at all bad as such'):
Weimar Staatskapelke, Antoni Wit (2006, Naxos)

[oliver sudden]

Actually, that’s just about the speed I was doing yesterday.

But returning to rushing the Alpine Symphony, perhaps the worst culprit is Franz Welser-Möst, whose sunset sounds like a cataclysmic solar disaster, or perhaps he thought the mountaineers were being carried down by an avalanche.

I saw FWM and the Clevelanders conduct it in Köln a few years ago. With an electronic organ and indeed the sunset you describe, with the additional displeasure of watching him slice his way through it.