Discovering Masterpieces – An Alpine Symphony

Discovering Masterpieces – An Alpine Symphony

The informative documentary series ‘Discovering Masterpieces’ sheds light on great masterpieces of classical music, as acclaimed experts, famous soloists, and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. This documentary addresses Richard Strauss’s tone poem An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64 (Eine Alpensinfonie). Completed in 1915, the symphonic work depicts a mountain climb in the Alps and is one of the composer’s largest non-operatic works. It is scored for a large orchestra, requiring about 125 instruments. In this documentary, 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. The music excerpts in this broadcast are performed by Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Giuseppe Sinopoli.