Eine Alpensinfonie / Alpine Symphony - your favourite version

[LaciDeeLeBlanc]

Simply, what recordings would you recommend of this work? I personally have this one:

[paul]

Kempe/Staatskapelle Dresden is the one that I prefer above my other recordings. I also really like Sinopoli/Staatskapelle Dresden.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Simply, what recordings would you recommend of this work? I personally have this one:

That's a good one ! I also like Kempe/SD, Previn/WP, Thielemann/WP. Not too thrilled about the Wit/Staatskappelle Weimar or the Zinman/Tonhalle.

If I  have to choose one it would be the one you have.

[Renfield]

I won't pretend I know the piece all that well, but I'll definitely recommend this recording.

Of course, this is "late Karajan" we're talking about, so it's considerably a matter of personal preference (or even adherence to K's "late" style), as well; but I still enjoy it too much for me not to recommend it.

[techniquest]

My choice would be Cleveland Orchestra / Ashkenazy on Decca - wonderful recording.

[Hector]

Bin it or go to the highest mountain and throw it away.

Kempe recorded it twice commercially.

You need no other recording.

Go out and get 'Aus Italien' a far greater work with a first movement that is absolutely sublime and a last movement where Strauss thought a popular tune was folk-music (I will not say what it is).

[bhodges]

This is one of my favorite Richard Strauss works, ever since I heard Karajan and Berlin do it at Carnegie back in the 1980s.  The three recordings I have are (and I like them all) Karajan/Berlin (the one Renfield shows above), Haitink/Concertgebouw, and Blomstedt/San Francisco.  They are all beautifully played and in excellent sound.  The Blomstedt is particularly well recorded.

--Bruce

[head-case]

I won't pretend I know the piece all that well, but I'll definitely recommend this recording.

Of course, this is "late Karajan" we're talking about, so it's considerably a matter of personal preference (or even adherence to K's "late" style), as well; but I still enjoy it too much for me not to recommend it.

There is also a Sony DVD of Karajan performing the work live at a concert in Berlin.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Bin it or go to the highest mountain and throw it away.

Kempe recorded it twice commercially.

You need no other recording.

Go out and get 'Aus Italien' a far greater work with a first movement that is absolutely sublime and a last movement where Strauss thought a popular tune was folk-music (I will not say what it is).

I don't think Eine Alpensinfonie is meant as a "deep" work. But it does have moments of sublime beauty and unsurpassed majesty. The scintillating brass writing gets my blood going every time. Yes it is a bit over the top but it is a "fun" piece. I am sure orchestras and audiences get excited about it every time it is performed.

[Renfield]

There is also a Sony DVD of Karajan performing the work live at a concert in Berlin.

Now that is something worth tracking down!

[head-case]

Now that is something worth tracking down!

nla, unfortunately.  You can pay more than $100 to get it used from Amazon Marketplace.  When it gets to $200 I'll consider selling mine.   

[Renfield]

nla, unfortunately.  You can pay more than $100 to get it used from Amazon Marketplace.  When it gets to $200 I'll consider selling mine.   

I'll get it from Japan, I will! Karajanu-sensei!

[uffeviking]

Of course you could stay closer to home and pay much less for, what I consider the best Alpensymphonie performance, the one conducted by Christian Thielemann. Of course he is still alive and young, a condition not always favoured by GMG posters, but give it a try, you might like a young and fresh approach to this great Richard Strauss work.

[Rabin_Fan]

Now that is something worth tracking down!

I may consider selling you my copy Renfield. Do drop me an e-mail to:-
chartist2618@bloomberg.net.

[Renfield]

Of course you could stay closer to home and pay much less for, what I consider the best Alpensymphonie performance, the one conducted by Christian Thielemann. Of course he is still alive and young, a condition not always favoured by GMG posters, but give it a try, you might like a young and fresh approach to this great Richard Strauss work.

Thielemann is actually a better conductor than his slightly "vacant" expression might suggest. And in fact, I think I've heard of his recording of the Alpensymphonie before...

Rabin_Fan, thank you for the offer (or rather, the consideration of one ): I'll keep it in mind, and if an (offline) lead or two of my own all prove unfruitful, I might very well contact you, indeed.

[uffeviking]

And in fact, I think I've heard of his recording of the Alpensymphonie before...

You most certainly did because Thielemann and this Strauss recording have been discussed here before, even at length, but a short search did not come up with it! 

[Renfield]

You most certainly did because Thielemann and this Strauss recording have been discussed here before, even at length, but a short search did not come up with it! 

I was more referring to a Gramophone comment I think I read about that recording. Still, the point is more-or-less the same: the recording is good, and I will very likely be buying it.

[M forever]

This is one of my favorite Richard Strauss works, ever since I heard Karajan and Berlin do it at Carnegie back in the 1980s.  The three recordings I have are (and I like them all) Karajan/Berlin (the one Renfield shows above), Haitink/Concertgebouw, and Blomstedt/San Francisco.  They are all beautifully played and in excellent sound.  The Blomstedt is particularly well recorded.

--Bruce

Yougoddabekidding. The Karajan CD is horribly badly recorded, the at one time glaring-blaring, at another mushy-foggy sound sauce has nothing to do with what the Alpensinfonie sounded live under him, not even very remotely. That is one of the worst recorded CDs I have ever heard, and the "Gold" Edition doesn't change much about that. The BP was infinitely better recorded in this piece a few years later by Sony, with Mehta. The DVD of a live concert is, while it still hasn't the greatest sound, vaaaaastly superior to this horrible, horrible, horrible Karajan CD, and gives you a much better impression of what the piece sounded like under him.

The Haitink and Blomstedt recordings are both very nice and indeed rather well recorded, and both really well played and prepared, but not really that distinguished. If you want to understand this piece and Strauss' orchestral style which culminated in it, listen to the orchestra for which it was written and which has preserved its very own and uniquely authentic Strauss playing style, best conducted by Kempe who himself learnt his craft at the SD's own orchestra school. In the world of classical music, it doesn't get any more "authentic" and "idiomatic" than that.
The SD also recorded this work in the 50s under Böhm (in mono) and in the 90s under Sinopoli, and both conductors brought their own insights to these interpretations which makes these recordings very interesting to listen to, too. There is also a video of Sinopoli and the SD performing the Alpensinfonie in concert (not the same performance as the live DG recording, it was filmed a few years later at the orchestra's 450th anniversary concert).

The Wit recording with the Staatskapelle Weimar totally surprised me, in a positive way. I may be biased because I played in that orchestra for a few years, but I had actually expected "less" from this recording. It is safe to say in any case that it is stylistically very close to what they do in Dresden, and Wit made full use of that sonic and orchestral potential in his pretty astonishing, very musical and detailed, and highly idiomatic reading on Naxos. Incredibly flexible and surefooted, to-the-point phrasing and plenty of fine coloritic detail, if recorded maybe a little bit on the over-reverberant side.

The Solti recording is a real achievement. I find it astonishing how unidiomatic he managed to make the SOBR play this piece, an insensitive, overdriven, mechanical, monochromatic performance which tramples all over the music and misses basically all of its fine colors, expressive detail, and completely fails to trace the long melodic lines of this actually very lyrical piece. A real abomination. Maazel let the orchestra play this piece infinitely better and more stylishly later for RCA which also provided much better sound in their recording.

The WP have their own very deep Strauss tradition which however is rather different from Dresden. They recorded this piece at least 3 times (that I am aware of), and while the Previn recording is a highly competent routine run-through with few real highlights and the Ozawa recording has a few more points of interest and fine detail, it is indeed Thielemann who managed best to mine this orchestra's vast potential, I think his recording is one of the best things I have heard from him, a real orchestral soundscape, and very nicely recorded by DG in this case, too.

[bhodges]

Yougoddabekidding. The Karajan CD is horribly badly recorded, the at one time glaring-blaring, at another mushy-foggy sound sauce has nothing to do with what the Alpensinfonie sounded live under him, not even very remotely. That is one of the worst recorded CDs I have ever heard, and the "Gold" Edition doesn't change much about that. The BP was infinitely better recorded in this piece a few years later by Sony, with Mehta. The DVD of a live concert is, while it still hasn't the greatest sound, vaaaaastly superior to this horrible, horrible, horrible Karajan CD, and gives you a much better impression of what the piece sounded like under him.

Hm, well, I haven't heard it in awhile, but I really don't recall it being "horrible."  (I have the original, not the "Gold" version.)  My recalling it may have something to do with recalling the live experience, which of course was sensational. 

--Bruce

[paul]

The WP have their own very deep Strauss tradition which however is rather different from Dresden. They recorded this piece at least 3 times (that I am aware of), and while the Previn recording is a highly competent routine run-through with few real highlights and the Ozawa recording has a few more points of interest and fine detail, it is indeed Thielemann who managed best to mine this orchestra's vast potential, I think his recording is one of the best things I have heard from him, a real orchestral soundscape, and very nicely recorded by DG in this case, too.

There's also a live recording of the WP with Hans Knappertsbusch that I have which I think is from the early 50's. It's very well played and interesting to listen to, though the sound is not very good. I'm not very interested in hearing Previn or Ozawa in this piece, but I would like to hear Thielemann sometime to compare.