Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie

Featuring

Frank Shipway
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
Richard Strauss

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Composition History

Richard Strauss's Alpensinfonie, despite its title, is not a true symphony but rather the last of his symphonic poems, a genre he had explored since 1886.

Compositional Technique

Strauss specified the use of Bernhard Samuel's Aerophon, a device supplying extra oxygen to wind players via a footpump, due to the immensely long notes in Alpensinfonie.

Compositional Technique

Alpensinfonie is scored for the largest orchestra Strauss ever used for a purely orchestral piece, including quadruple woodwind, eight horns, two harps, and percussion like wind and thunder machines, and cow-bells.

Performer Biography

Frank Shipway, the British conductor, was asked to form the new Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Italy in 1991 and served as its chief conductor for four years.

Recording & Production

This recording was made in February-March 2012 at the Sala São Paulo, Brazil, using Neumann microphones and high-resolution A/D converters.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Strauss initially planned to call his Alpensinfonie 'The Antichrist' as a reflection of his shared contempt for Christianity with Friedrich Nietzsche, aiming for 'moral purification through one's own strength'.

Composition History

The origins of Alpensinfonie trace back to 1900, when Strauss planned a symphonic poem about a sunrise in Switzerland and an 'artist's love tragedy' in memory of Swiss portrait painter Karl Stauffer.