BaL 22.01.11 - Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A reissue of the Haitink Concertgebouw account is due later this month from Newton Classics

I can definitely recommend it, though I think I prefer the "Cotswold" version on LSO Live; it's a work that recorded well in the Barbican (and for once it seems that you can hear the thunder machine).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

With the new CBSO/Nelsons version on order from Presto, this is becoming an expensive obsession.
I do hope there is more than a 2 second pause between the end of the work and the beginning of the Dance of the Seven Veils - that's all there is on the Cleveland/Ashkenazy version.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I wonder whether anyone can help me with this one. I would like to buy the VPO/Ozawa version of Eine Alpensinfonie, but it is only available as part of an 11-CD set at £38. Has anyone any knowledge of a second hand source (not counting the silly priced ones)?

[Petrushka]

I wonder whether anyone can help me with this one. I would like to buy the VPO/Ozawa version of Eine Alpensinfonie, but it is only available as part of an 11-CD set at £38. Has anyone any knowledge of a second hand source (not counting the silly priced ones)?

EA, I have this version and am prepared to lend it to you. Send me a PM.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thanks for that. Will contact.

[Flay]

It was lovely to hear another CD release of EA being played this morning on CD review: Nelsons with the CBSO. However as I listened to the first few bars I recognised a cough or two and realised that I had heard it before on Po3 in Feb 2010: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qfd3p. It certainly was a fine performance.

However I'm not sure I would want to buy a CD of a live concert. I don't want to be aware of an audience. I want it all for myself.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The CBSO/Nelsons version is up there among the best, but I take your point about the intrusions of coughers. If it annoys you, then it may well do so even more on subsequent hearings. There are quite a few live recordings available with coughing and shuffling, but one live performance I can recommend unreservedly is the VPO/Thielemann version.

[mercia]

don't want to be a damp squib (or do I mean killjoy) but with 30+ versions of E.A. so far on CD is there really anything new to be "said" about it by way of interpretation? (or, for that matter, any other work with multiple CD versions)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Mercia, it does seem an excessive number of recordings for a work that is not universally popular, and one which is more expensive than most to perform. However, most of the recordings I have collected have something unique to say. The only exceptions, in my opinion, are the Royal Concertgebouw/Jansons and (...wait while I run for it...) the Karajan. The Nelsons has some of the best overall virtues, with a fine sense of structure, but with brilliant pictorialism, excitement and momentum. It's well recorded too, but most of the others are too.

[Flay]

Perhaps a damp killjoy, Mercia. Hearing it brightened up my morning anyway. I do agree that there are a lot of versions on CD, so adding another from a live performance seems unnecessary. However as EA says, this one was excellent.
Thanks for the suggestion, EA, but as I haven't yet got it on CD I have just ordered the Naxos - Wit - Staatskapelle Weimar for just a few quid.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

...I have just ordered the Naxos - Wit - Staatskapelle Weimar for just a few quid.

That's a good 'n' too.

[EdgeleyRob]

The only exceptions, in my opinion, are the Royal Concertgebouw/Jansons and (...wait while I run for it...) the Karajan.

Karajan is the only recording I have of this work (although I haven't played it for ages).Is it that bad?.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Karajan is the only recording I have of this work (although I haven't played it for ages).Is it that bad?.

This is most embarrassing. I seem to be in a minority of one here. The Karajan was chosen as the recommended version on BaL on two occasions. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singled it out as a supreme CD when it was first released, and most people seem happy with it. Generally I admire Karajan's Strauss. So I'm on very dangerous ground. However, it is very closely recorded in the manner of DG at that time, the Berlin Phil plays uncharacteristically out of tune, the off-stage horns feel as though they are sitting on your lap and the performance as a whole is rather routine in my opinion. I gave it away many years ago, but I bought a new copy on the strength of BaL.
I remain unconvinced, but my opinion is no more valid than anyone else's, except that I have several () other versions to compare it with.

[Nick Armstrong]

The Andris Nelsons performance with the CBSO, played in an extended excerpt in this morning's programme, seemed to me to be exquisitely paced, shaped and played - mobile, exciting, powerful yet subtle. Top Strauss conducting (and playing), to these ears at least

[EdgeleyRob]

This is most embarrassing. I seem to be in a minority of one here. The Karajan was chosen as the recommended version on BaL on two occasions. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singled it out as a supreme CD when it was first released, and most people seem happy with it. Generally I admire Karajan's Strauss. So I'm on very dangerous ground. However, it is very closely recorded in the manner of DG at that time, the Berlin Phil plays uncharacteristically out of tune, the off-stage horns feel as though they are sitting on your lap and the performance as a whole is rather routine in my opinion. I gave it away many years ago, but I bought a new copy on the strength of BaL.
I remain unconvinced, but my opinion is no more valid than anyone else's, except that I have several () other versions to compare it with.

I'll have to dig it out and have a listen.