DISCOVERING MASTERPIECES - STRAUSS, R.: Eine Alpensinfonie
Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), Op. 64, TrV 233
Composer: Strauss, Richard
Conductor: Sinopoli, Giuseppe
Saxon State Orchestra
DVD Producer: Moller, Tobias
Television Director: Birke-Malzer, Elizabeth
Catalogue Number: EuroArts5613
UPC: 880242561381
Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music is a series of audio-visual concert guides that allow the listener to experience and enjoy great music from the Baroque period up to the present day in an entirely new way, offering a combination of documentary material and a complete performance of the featured work. The Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Gewandhaus Orchestra and other eminent musical bodies join forces with acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors to highlight the distinctive features of twenty famous masterpieces by the most important composers through first class concert recordings. Each introductory feature is clearly designed and provides abundant information. Examples from the musical score help the viewer to follow the themes and rhythms and to understand the structure of the work. New film material documenting the birthplaces of the composers and locations of composition is combined with historic film material, works of art and original manuscripts. It allows the viewer to embark on a journey back to the time and place of composition and informs him about the life of the composer while providing a complete introduction to the work.
The Sächsische Staatskapelle, orchestra of the famous Dresden Semperoper gives a sample of its masterly interpretations of early 20th century music. Here, in a recording made at the wonderful Semperoper in 1998 on the occasion of the Staatskapelle's 450th anniversary, they present Richard Strauss Alpensinfonie under their popular, former chief conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli (1946-2001), who died some years later tragically young. In his Alpine Symphony, Richard Strauss pulled all the stops in creating a musical landscape full of surprising tone-paintings. The well-known Berlin-based music journalist Habakuk Traber shows how the unrivalled master in the art of instrumentation produced a fascinating synthesis of symphony and programme music.
