A mountain hike inspired the 15-year-old Richard Strauss to make his first sketches; decades later he completed his «Alpine Symphony». It became famous not only due to its opulent orchestration. The program offers plenty of scope for associations - and at the same time harbors the temptation to exaggerate naturalistic observation. The composition, which includes more than 100 musicians and instruments such as wind machines, thunder plates and cowbells, is impressive in any case. A grandiose alpine hike with the Tonkunstler-Orchestra and the great Fabio Luisi as "mountain guide": Let’s go to the summit!

Richard Strauss
«An Alpine Symphony» op. 64
Night. Lento - Sunrise - The ascent. Very lively and energetic - Entry into the forest - Hike alongside the creek - At the waterfall. Very lively - On flowery meadows. Very lively - on the alp. Moderately fast - through thickets and undergrowth on wrong paths - on the glacier. Firm, very lively tempo - Dangerous moments. Livelier than before - On the summit - Vision. Firm and held - mists rise. A little less wide - The sun is gradually eclipsing - Elegy. Moderato espressivo - calm before the storm - thunderstorm and storm, descent. Fast and violent - sunset - finale. Slightly broad and sostenuto – night.

Presentation Albert Hosp
Conductor Fabio Luisi
Tonkunstler-Orchestra

Recorded in Festspielhaus St. Pölten | January 2021
Production 2021
Moderated concert directed by Bernhard Sirowy
Concert film directed by David Horswell

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