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Order number: B 108 091

Strauss | Eine Alpensinfonie (CD)

Göteborgs Symfoniker - Kent Nagano

Recorded at the Gothenburg Concert Hall, 2014

CD


  • Göteborgs Symfoniker (orchestra)
  • Kent Nagano (conductor)
  • Kent Nagano, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Richard Strauss

    ECHO Klassik 2017

    Kent Nagano and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra first became acquainted in 1993, when they worked together on Mahler's Third Symphony. Love was immediate and Kent Nagano conducted the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra regularly over the next decades.

    When Kent Nagano was appointed as Principal Guest Conductor starting in the autumn of 2013, one of the ideas turned into a project: performing and recording major orchestral works of Richard Strauss in connection with the composer’s 150th anniversary in 2014.
    Having worked for a long time as Music Director of the Bayerische Staatsoper, Kent Nagano has unique insights into Strauss’s music and the Strauss tradition, and can draw on information from authentic sources within the Strauss family. 
    What is perhaps less known is that the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra also has a solid Richard Strauss tradition. The orchestra already performed “Don Juan” in its inaugural season 1905-1906; it has been played more than 50 times since then. Under Wilhelm Stenhammar, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra played “Macbeth” (1908) and “Tod und Verklärung” (1913), as well as the overture to “Guntram” and “Till Eulenspiegel” (1913). 
    After Stenhammar’s period as Principal Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, several of his later successors championed the music of Richard Strauss: Sergiu Comissiona (“Don Quixote”), Sixten Ehrling (“Ein Heldenleben”) and Charles Dutoit (“Don Juan”). Neeme Järvi and Gustavo Dudamel had a particular affinity with “Don Juan”, and Dudamel also conducted “Ein Heldenleben”. 
    “Eine Alpensinfonie”, the last of Strauss’s large orchestral pieces, entered the orchestra's repertoire with Otmar Suitner in 1975, and since then has been one of the most popular pieces with both the orchestra and its audience. Neeme Järvi took it to the UK and Estonia (1999) and Gustavo Dudamel conducted it five times in Sweden (2007).

    The orchestra was thus technically and musically familiar with the splendid score when performances were scheduled with Kent Nagano in 2014, including this recording.

    For these performances and recording a new approach was taken. Conductor and orchestra wished to express not the bombastic aspects, but the subtle emotional changes, the colours and nuances of the vast and impressive landscape and the wanderer’s instinctive reaction to it, which is also expressed in the enormous orchestral apparatus. This was made possible only by the long and searching work orchestra and conductor carried out together over the years, which made possible new shades and depths in the re-creation of this magnificent piece of art.




    Conductor Kent Nagano, horn player Lisa Ford and producer Felix Gargerle presented The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra's recording of Richard Strauss' "Eine Alpensinfonie" at a Hi-Fi Scenen pre-listening session held at the Gothenburg Concert Hall. We sat down with Lisa and Felix to talk about the recording, sound quality and the future of classical music.

    Press review

    Winner of the ECHO Klassik 2017

    in the category "Conductor of the year"


    BBC Music Magazine

    ... majestic from start to finish.
    EC, November 2016

    Fanfare

    ... There is no shortage of excellent Strauss recordings, and we don’t really need another orchestra to tackle a Strauss cycle. However, if the results are as positive as they are here, I’ll just have to make more room on my shelves!
    Raymond Tuttle, 2016, December

    allmusic.com

    ... This 2014 performance by Kent Nagano and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra delivers the sweep and majesty of the music with an extraordinary depth of sound ... The recording by Farao classics is phenomenal in its warmth and richness, which approach audiophile quality.
    Blair Sanderson, 2016, September

    musicweb-international.com

    ... this is a well-engineered disc with immaculate orchestral playing and a tasteful concept of the work...
    John Whitmore, April 24, 2017

    crescendo-magazine.be

    ... Une belle et réjouissante Symphonie des Alpes.
    Jean-Baptiste Baronian, 22.10.16