Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony | Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Staatskapelle Dresden

The Staatskapelle Dresden celebrated its 450th anniversary with a concert held on September 22, 1998 in Dresden's Semperoper. For the occasion, Giuseppe Sinopoli (1946-2001) conducted An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949). The choice of work for the anniversary celebration could not have been more appropriate: Strauss had dedicated his symphony to the time-honored Saxon orchestra, which had previously premiered several of his operas. For the work's 1915 premiere in Berlin, the Staatskapelle was conducted by the composer himself.

An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64 is a remarkable work in many regards. In it, Richard Strauss musically interprets an experience from his own youth. At the age of fifteen, he had been caught in a heavy thunderstorm whilst hiking in the mountains. He wrote to a friend that he had reimagined the event the next day on the piano. Many years later, his memory of the event gave rise to the first sketches for 'Eine Alpensinfonie'. As the title suggests, Strauss initially intended to write a four-movement symphony, but then composed a symphonic poem in one movement. Across 22 musical tableaux, it traces in detail the ascent and descent through the natural setting – with the Alpine Symphony thereby becoming a typical example of program music. The simple and descriptive headings of the stages of the mountain journey, however, should not obscure the fact that the program is more than a mere reflection of nature. In literary history, the ascent of a mountain has always been considered a metaphor for an existential, or even transcendent experience. What's more, until shortly before its completion Strauss was writing An Alpine Symphony the secondary title 'The Antichrist'. This could be seen as an allusion to the book of the same name by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), whose preface states that one “must be accustomed to living on mountain tops.” Strauss – a lifelong admirer of Nietzsche, and having renounced Christianity himself – may thus have understood the direct experience of nature to be an outright repudiation of Christianity. The intensity of the musical journey through the Alps comes not least from the immense orchestral apparatus that Strauss' composition calls for: Over 120 musicians are required to perform the monumental symphonic poem.

Fun fact: Reactions to the premiere of Eine Alpensinfonie were somewhat ambivalent. The great symphonic work was disparagingly referred to as 'cinema music' – all the more astonishing given the fact that cinema, in 1915, was a relatively new phenomenon.

(00:00) Sinopoli is coming on stage
(00:14) Nacht (Night)
(03:59) Sonnenaufgang (Sunrise)
(05:50) Der Anstieg (The Ascent)
(08:10) Eintritt in den Wald (Entry into the Forest)
(13:33) Wanderung neben dem Bache (Wandering by the Brook)
(14:21) Am Wasserfall (At the Waterfall)
(14:36) Erscheinung (Apparition)
(15:20) Auf blumigen Wiesen (On Flowering Meadows)
(16:20) Auf der Alm (On the Alpine Pasture)
(18:35) Durch Dickicht und Gestrüpp auf Irrwegen (Through Thickets and Undergrowth on the Wrong Path)
(20:10) Auf dem Gletscher (On the Glacier)
(21:16) Gefahrvolle Augenblicke (Dangerous Moments)
(22:41) Auf dem Gipfel (On the Summit)
(28:04) Vision (Vision)
(31:19) Nebel steigen auf (Mists Rise)
(31:37) Die Sonne verdüstert sich allmählich (The Sun Gradually Becomes Obscured)
(32:25) Elegie (Elegy)
(34:33) Stille vor dem Sturm (Calm Before the Storm)
(37:55) Gewitter und Sturm, Abstieg (Thunderstorm and Tempest)
(41:37) Sonnenuntergang (Sunset)
(44:37) Ausklang (Quiet Settles / Epilogue)
(51:14) Nacht (Night)

A co-production of MDR, NHK and EuroArts

© MDR & EuroArts 1998

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