Eine Alpensinfonie - An Alpine Symphony Richard Strauss / Arr. Carlo Balmelli

Titel / Title: Eine Alpensinfonie
Herausgeber / Publisher: Baton Music
Instrumentation: Symphonic Band
Produkttyp / Product: Partitur + Stimmen

The German composer Richard Strauss wrote in the years of 1914/15 his most impressive tune An Alpine Symphony. However, the genesis of this composition goes back to the year 19, in which the first comprehensive sketches were made and the idea for this work goes back to the youth of the composer. Impressed by a thunderstorm during a simple mountain hike, the young Strauss reflected his feelings on the piano by playing. Strauss certainly had the idea of musically describing a mountain hike as such, but there is also the possibility of understanding the ascent to the summit with subsequent descent the path of a human life. In this context, a purely philosophical approach can be recognised, in contrast to a simple hike. The Alpine Symphony is a proximity to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the symphonic poem based on the text of Friedrich Nietzsche. Richard Strauss seems to have been influenced by the philosopher Nietzsche, since the sketches for the Alpine Symphony are titled The Antirichrist, an allusion to the eponymous text by Nietzsche.

The Alpine Symphony is divided into the following sections:

Night Sunrise The ascent Entrance to the forest Walk beside the creek At the waterfall Appearance On flowery meadows On the pasture Through thickets and scrub on erroneous paths On the glacier Dangerous moments On the summit Vision Fog rising The sun is beginning to darken Elegy Silence before the storm Thunderstorm and storm, Descent Sunset Ending Night
Edition Symphonic Works