Richard Strauss

Born: June 11, 1864, Munich, Germany
Died: September 8, 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Eine Alpensinfonie ("An Alpine Symphony"), Op. 64

• Composed: 1911-1915
  
• Premiere: October 28, 1915, orchestra of the Dresden Hofkapelle in Berlin, Richard Strauss conducting
• CSO Notable Performances: 
  • First: April 1916 Ernst Kunwald conducting (U.S. Premiere of this work)
  • Most Recent: September 2019, Louis Langrée conducting
• Instrumentation: 4 flutes (incl. 2 piccolos), 3 oboes (incl. English horn), heckelphone, 2 clarinets (incl. bass clarinet), E-flat clarinet, 4 bassoons (incl. contrabassoon), 8 horns, 4 trumpets, 5 trombones, 2 tubas, 2 timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, glockenspiel, herdbells, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, thunder sheet, triangle, wind machine, 2 harps, celeste, organ, strings
• Duration: approx. 51 minutes

Richard Strauss’ final major orchestral work, An Alpine Symphony, celebrates the beauty of the natural environment. It depicts the sublime experiences of ascending and descending a mountain, capturing scenes of waterfalls, meadows and storms. An Alpine Symphony is Strauss’ largest work, in terms of duration and size, lasting nearly an hour and requiring more than 120 musicians.  

Strauss’ second set of tone poems concluded with his composition of Ein Heldenleben in 1898. By this point, his tone poems were solidly integrated into German repertory and had earned him a reputation as a skilled composer who could effectively express poetic content through unique formal design in his music. Strauss had also developed his reputation as a conductor, and, in 1898, he moved to Berlin to take on the prestigious position of opera conductor with the Berlin Hofoper. The move prompted him to focus his attention back on composing opera. After the failure of his first opera, Guntram, Strauss was determined to succeed in the genre. He soon achieved this success with Salome (1905), followed by his other renowned operas Elektra (1906), Der Rosenkavalier (1909–10), Ariadne auf Naxos (1911–12) and Die Frau ohne Schatten (1914–17).  

Amid his period of operatic composition, Strauss completed two more orchestral works following the creative vein of his tone poems: Symphonia domestica (1902–03), which conveys the pleasures and complexities of everyday life (Strauss’ vision of ordinary family life and domestic love was idealized, and his decision to musically depict these subjects received mixed reactions), and An Alpine Symphony.  

The initial inspiration for An Alpine Symphony stretches all the way back to Strauss’ experiences on a mountain trip when he was 14 years old. The musical roots of the piece date back to 1899 and Strauss’ engagement with the philosophies of Nietzsche. While Strauss had admired the music of Wagner for a time, he grew tired of the metaphysical underpinnings, and he turned to the writings of Nietzsche to guide him in composing a musical response to Wagner’s philosophies. Strauss planned to compose a tone poem titled An Artist’s Tragedy after the life of the artist Karl Stauffer, but he soon abandoned the project. He returned to the piece again in 1911, when the death of Gustav Mahler rekindled his interest and prompted Strauss to continue his pursuit of musically expressing his philosophies. As he described in his diary, Strauss envisioned a symphony that would represent “moral purification through one's own strength, liberation through work, [and] worship of eternal, magnificent nature.” While he originally thought to title his work Der Antichrist after Nietzsche’s 1888 essay, he eventually turned his focus to the exaltation of nature through the inspiration of the alpine landscape near his home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  

An Alpine Symphony guides the listener on an adventure ascending and descending an alpine mountain. The 22 tableaux of the piece unfold without breaks in between, creating a continuous journey that begins and ends with “Night” and depicts the marvels experienced along the way. 

The piece opens with the soft darkness of “Night.” Low winds and strings move slowly and quietly, building in layers and growing to the brilliant burst of “Sunrise.” Broad sweeping lines paint the image of the sun’s rays stretching over the mountain. The orchestra then begins the “Ascent” with a distant horn fanfare before turning darker and mysterious with the “Entry into the Forest.” Undulating lines in the winds and strings evoke flowing waters leading to “Wandering by the Brook,” and quicker bubbling gestures suggest the splashing water of “By the Waterfall.” Here the listener encounters the “Apparition,” a benevolent supernatural being derived from Alpine lore of water goblins and forest-mountain fairies. The music turns to pastoral tranquility as the journey continues “On the Flowering Meadows” and “On the Pastures.” Twittering birds can be heard in the flutes, and the sounds of cowbells and distant yodeling of shepherds set the scene of leisurely wandering. The calm is disrupted by anxious horns and dizzying runs as the music strays “Through the Thicket and Undergrowth by the Wrong Path.” Brass fanfares depict the emergence onto an icy expanse, traveling “On the Glacier” with slippery steps across the frozen ground. The perilous journey continues with a sparser orchestral texture, with the bassoon leading the careful passage through “Dangerous Moments.” Tremolo strings accompany the final ascent. The listener arrives “On the Summit” with broad chords of triumph that fade to a solemn oboe solo taking in the breathtaking view. The full orchestra returns for the piece’s climax, depicting the majesty of standing at the mountaintop.  

The next section, “Visions,” takes on a more introspective quality, a personal reflection on the transcendence of reaching the mountain’s summit. Overlapping melodies and shifting harmonies create a dramatic daydream, and the organ enters with a deep pedal tone beneath the swirling thoughts. Then soft scales accompany the clarinet as “Mists Arrive,” and “The Sun Gradually Becomes Obscured.” A gentle “Elegy” emerges in a meditative melody in the strings, followed by an English horn solo accompanied by the organ. The elegy is interrupted by a rumbling in the percussion, the sound of distant thunder. Quiet melodies are passed around among the woodwinds in the “Calm Before the Storm,” intensifying as the storm approaches. The wind machine enters in the percussion, and rapid chromatic lines in the strings indicate the gusts of wind growing stronger. Staccato woodwinds accelerate, imitating raindrops splattering down as the storm begins. “Thunder and Tempest, Descent” depicts the intensity of the violent storm and the frantic descent to escape the deluge. The storm finally dies down, and sweeping chords depict the “Sunset” in the clearing sky. A majestic melody in the harp and brass suggests the beauty of the colors of the fading sunlight. “Quiet Settles” serves as an epilogue, offering the listener a contemplative reflection of the music’s journey over the mountain. The piece concludes with a return to “Night,” and a closing gesture of the violins echoes the ascent and then final descent into darkness.

—Dr. Rebecca Schreiber