RICHARD STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony | Lan Shui

On the occasion of our Conductor Laureate’s return on 1 March 2024 since he stepped down as Music Director in 2019, we present this performance of Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony from 2012. Lan Shui was the Singapore Symphony’s Music Director from 1997 to 2019. Richard Strauss’s colossal Alpine Symphony is one of the most remarkable works ever created to depict nature in sound. The dates of composition (1911-15) indicate that it closely followed Der Rosenkavalier and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, but one looks in vain for the lightness of touch and chamber music qualities of these works. Reverting to the enormous resources required for compositions like Symphonia Domestica, Salome and Elektra, Strauss calls for an orchestra of over 130 musicians. Every aspect of the ascent and descent of an Alpine peak, covering a time span of twenty-four hours, is portrayed. RICHARD STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64 0:00 Applause 0:20 Night 3:27 Sunrise 4:50 The Ascent 7:07 Entry into the wood 12:37 Wandering by the brook 13:20 At the waterfall 13:34 Apparition 14:21 Flowering meadows 15:20 On the Alpine pasture 17:48 Lost in the thickets and undergrowth 19:18 On the glacier 20:30 Dangerous moments 22:12 On the summit 27:18 Vision 30:26 Mists rise 30:46 The sun gradually becomes obscured 32:03 Elegy 34:13 Calm before the storm 37:20 Thunder and tempest, descent 41:11 Sunset 44:20 Quiet settles / Epilogue 51:20 Night 54:30 Applause This richly descriptive piece of programme music, nearly an hour in length, shows Strauss at the peak of his orchestrative powers. There was virtually nothing, either spiritual or physical, that he could not depict in sound. He once casually remarked that, if necessary, he could describe a knife and fork in music. To achieve his goals here, instruments are combined in unprecedented variety and pushed to the extremes of their range. Utmost virtuosity and stamina are required from every player. So vast and varied are the forces that it is worth noting them in detail: 4 flutes, 2 piccolos, 3 oboes, English horn, hecklephone (bass oboe), E-flat clarinet, 2 B-flat clarinets, C clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 8 horns, 4 Wagner tubas, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 2 bass tubas, 2 harps, organ, wind machine, thunder machine, glockenspiel, cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, cowbells, tam-tam, celesta, timpani, and an enlarged string section. Some of the above parts are covered by the same musicians (for instance, the Wagner tubas are played by horns 5-8), but Strauss additionally requires a backstage contingent of 12(!) horns, 2 trumpets and 2 trombones, used only in the “Ascent” episode near the beginning. All in all, not the sort of work that is likely to turn up frequently on concert programs! But its dazzling orchestral colours, phenomenal feats of virtuosity, and the sheer fun of it all for audiences and musicians alike have ensured the Alpine Symphony a secure place in the orchestral repertory. (Robert Markow) Singapore Symphony Orchestra Lan Shui, conductor Recorded live at the Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore, on 10 Feb 2012. About Lan Shui Lan Shui served as the Music Director of Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2019, where he “turned a good regional orchestra into a world-class ensemble that plays its heart out at every concert” (American Record Guide). Together they made several acclaimed tours to Europe, Asia and the United States and made their BBC Proms debut in 2014. Currently the SSO’s Conductor Laureate, Lan Shui was also Chief Conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic from 2007 to 2015, currently serving as the orchestra’s Honorary Conductor. He is presently Principal Guest Conductor of National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor, Shui has worked with many orchestras worldwide. In the United States he has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, Baltimore and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. In Europe he has conducted the orchestras of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Danish National Symphony, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestre National de France and Royal Swedish Orchestra. Since 1998 Shui has recorded over 40 albums with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for BIS, including the first-ever complete cycle of Tcherepnin’s symphonies plus complete orchestral works of Rachmaninoff and Debussy. He also recorded Beethoven’s complete symphonies with the Copenhagen Philharmonic. His albums have received Grammy nominations twice. Lan Shui is the recipient of international awards from the Beijing Arts Festival, New York Tcherepnin Society, the 37th Besançon Conductors’ Competition in France and Boston University (Distinguished Alumni Award), as well as the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest accolade in the arts, and the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Star, or BBM), both awarded by the Singapore government.