Documentary

Richard Strauss, An Alpine Symphony

Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music

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Cast

Staatskapelle Dresden

Giuseppe Sinopoli — Conductor

Program notes

Experience and enjoy in a completely new way the great works of classical music, from the Baroque to the modern period, thanks to a series of 20 audio-visual concert guides, Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music.

The Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie) is one of Strauss' largest non-operatic conceptions, and the composer himself considered it his best-wrought work in terms of its orchestration. Despite its title, it is not a symphony in the generally accepted sense of the word. It is a "tone poem," a musical form which Strauss specialised in for about 20 years of his life.

The German author and Strauss specialist Habakuk Traber explains the concept of the work and the story behind: a story of a human life, with its jollity, its fear, its glory, beginning and ending in darkness.

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