STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony & • Giuseppe Sinopoli, cond; Staatskapelle Dresden • EUROARTS 2056138 (DVD: 86:00) Live: Dresden 9/22/1998

& Documentary: Habkuk Traber analyzes the symphony

This is one of a series of EuroArts DVDs entitled “Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music.” It is still another variation on how to package and market orchestral concerts on DVD. Each release contains an explanatory documentary and complete performance of the music. The program notes explain that this September 22, 1998, concert marked the 450th anniversary of the Staatskapelle Dresden, and quite appropriately included An Alpine Symphony since Strauss dedicated it to the orchestra. It is unsettling to view this concert realizing that it occurred just three years before Giuseppe Sinopoli’s tragic and untimely fatal heart attack while conducting a performance of Aida in Berlin in 2001.

The production is very straightforward, with absolutely no gimmicks or frills. Sinopoli comes on stage, takes a quick bow, and promptly begins the performance. The camera alternates between long shots of the orchestra usually at climaxes, and close-ups of soloists, instrumental groups, and Sinopoli.... Sinopoli is certainly a gifted Straussian. He leads a dramatically paced performance that doesn’t get bogged down in the excessively slow and somber tempos that many conductors favor for An Alpine Symphony. Sinopoli’s skillful management of tempo and instrumentation accents the drama inherent in the music and Strauss’s skill as an orchestrator. The thunderstorm is truly imposing, especially in PCM stereo sound. This and the mammoth size of the piece are clearly reasons why it appears frequently on DVD. Despite the size of the orchestra, even this work has moments of repose that are actually chamber like in instrumental texture. Sinopoli effectively emphasizes these dramatic contrasts.

The 30-minute documentary includes a background English narrative and an interesting musical analysis of An Alpine Symphony by German musicologist Habakuk Traber spoken in German with English, French, and Spanish subtitles in addition to musical examples extracted from the performance. Traber notes that the work can be structurally likened to a traditional four-movement symphony despite its detailed program, and cites examples tracing the influence of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on the Climber’s theme from An Alpine Symphony. The production is similar in layout and therefore directly competitive with the Arthaus Musik concert and documentary with Kent Nagano conducting An Alpine Symphony (Fanfare 31: 4). Both performances are highly recommended. Sinopoli may be marginally preferable because of his dramatically cogent pacing of Strauss’s orchestral showpiece.... Picture format in this EuroArts DVD is 16:9 (widescreen). The concert is presented in PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital, and DTS 5.1 surround sound. PCM Stereo, as expected, is the high-resolution audio format, and is clearly preferable in terms of instrumental presence, dynamic range, and frequency response. Surround sound minimally enhances ambient information, but is otherwise vastly inferior to PCM Stereo.

FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen