- Written between 1911-15, Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony is notably non-conformist for a couple of reasons:
- While designated as a symphony, the piece more closely resembles a tone poem. A traditional symphony consists of four movements, while An Alpine Symphony is one continuous ~50-minute piece.
- The massive instrumental ensemble comprises over 140 players, including offstage brass, which is large even for Strauss.1
- While composing the piece, Strauss was living in Garmish in Southern Bavaria at the foot of the Alps. The “symphony” portrays a climb up a mountain peak, inspired by a real-life trek taken by the composer while he was a teenager.
- Both euphoric and perilous, the piece encompasses a wide range of encounters throughout the ascent and descent, including a waterfall, a blossoming Alpine meadow, a thunderstorm, and the panorama of the mountain summit.2
- An Alpine Symphony premiered in 1915 under the baton of the composer. The piece is dedicated to Count Nicolaus Seebach and the Royal Kapelle in Dresden.3
Sources
- Bryan Gilliam and Charles Youmans, “Strauss, Richard,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 11, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040117.
- Betsy Schwarm, “An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64,” Encyclopedia Britannica (2019), accessed October 11, 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/An-Alpine-Symphony-Op-64.
- Richard Strauss, Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64 (Leipzig: F.E.C. Leuckart, 1915), 1.
Cut IDs
19300 19301 40556 19302 23978