[From the Archives] STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony | Lan Shui

On the occasion of our Conductor Laureate's return on 1 March 2024 since he stepped down as Music Director in 2019, we present this nostalgic archive performance of Strauss's An Alpine Symphony from 2012. Joining the SSO on stage are students from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Lan Shui was the Singapore Symphony's Music Director from 1997 to 2019.
Richard Strauss’s colossal Alpine Symphony is one of the most remarkable works ever created to depict nature in sound. The dates of composition (1911-15) indicate that it closely followed Der Rosenkavalier and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, but one looks in vain for the lightness of touch and chamber music qualities of these works. Reverting to the enormous resources required for compositions like Symphonia Domestica, Salome and Elektra, Strauss calls for an orchestra of over 130 musicians. Every aspect of the ascent and descent of an Alpine peak, covering a time span of twenty-four hours, is portrayed.
RICHARD STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64
0:00 Applause
0:20 Night
3:27 Sunrise
4:50 The Ascent
7:07 Entry into the wood
12:37 Wandering by the brook
13:20 At the waterfall
13:34 Apparition
14:21 Flowering meadows
15:20 On the Alpine pasture
17:48 Lost in the thickets and undergrowth
19:18 On the glacier
20:30 Dangerous moments
22:12 On the summit
27:18 Vision
30:26 Mists rise
30:46 The sun gradually becomes obscured
32:03 Elegy
34:13 Calm before the storm
37:20 Thunder and tempest, descent
41:11 Sunset
44:20 Quiet settles / Epilogue
51:20 Night
54:30 Applause
This richly descriptive piece of programme music, nearly an hour in length, shows Strauss at the peak of his orchestrative powers. Its dazzling orchestral colours, phenomenal feats of virtuosity, and the sheer fun of it all for audiences and musicians alike have ensured the Alpine Symphony a secure place in the orchestral repertory. (Robert Markow)
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Lan Shui, conductor
Recorded live at the Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore, on 10 Feb 2012.
About Lan Shui
Lan Shui served as the Music Director of Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2019, where he “turned a good regional orchestra into a world-class ensemble that plays its heart out at every concert” (American Record Guide). Together they made several acclaimed tours to Europe, Asia and the United States and made their BBC Proms debut in 2014. Currently the SSO’s Conductor Laureate, Lan Shui was also Chief Conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic from 2007 to 2015, currently serving as the orchestra’s Honorary Conductor. He is presently Principal Guest Conductor of National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.
As a guest conductor, Shui has worked with many orchestras worldwide. In the United States he has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, Baltimore and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. In Europe he has conducted the orchestras of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Danish National Symphony, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestre National de France and Royal Swedish Orchestra.
Since 1998 Shui has recorded over 40 albums with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for BIS, including the first-ever complete cycle of Tcherepnin’s symphonies plus complete orchestral works of Rachmaninoff and Debussy. He also recorded Beethoven’s complete symphonies with the Copenhagen Philharmonic. His albums have received Grammy nominations twice.
Lan Shui is the recipient of international awards from the Beijing Arts Festival, New York Tcherepnin Society, the 37th Besançon Conductors’ Competition in France and Boston University (Distinguished Alumni Award), as well as the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest accolade in the arts, and the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Star, or BBM), both awarded by the Singapore government.

[@generalbutsatisfied0317]

This would sound even better in person, I would love to see that.

[@GradyPhilpott]

Why is the resolution so low in this recording?

[@panduh0]

It was recorded in 2012