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Review by Posstmangerry January 17, 2005 (5 of 6 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics: |
| I had been hoping for Alpine Symphony to be rereleased in multichannel with Herbert Von Karajan conducting, but when I came across this Thielemann interpretation I decided to give it a chance. I think this is one of the most extraordinary recordings to ever grace my ears and my sound system. While the Karajan version may indeed be the benchmark for the "Alpine", Thielemann certainly has nothing to apologize for in his reading. Sonics are incredible, and the surround is very natural, not "forced" as in some recordings. The "Alpine Symphony" is supposed take one on a musical climb the Alps. With its beautiful orchestrations and its effects one feels as if they are in the middle of the Alps, with all the intricacies of sound one would expect in the midst of them. Every one who has heard this has added it to their "must have" list. Even friends who don't particularly enjoy classical music. Absolutely no disappointments here!
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Review by peteyspambucket July 21, 2003 (3 of 10 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
It's not Karajan's or Kempe's or Bohm's Alpensinfonie, but it will do for now. This is not a great performance, but it's good enough for those who want an introduction to the piece.
The hunting calls from the French Horns near the beginning of the piece are surprisingly off-stage and while played "FF" are really barely audible. (Maybe in Multichannel, this is better? I only listened to SACD Stereo.) I'll have to check my score for this, but I'm used to hearing them a little louder.
The middle section at the top of the mountain isn't as grand as it could be, and the organ sounds like a toy. The storm sequence is nice and the wind machine is really clear.
The sunrise, which should be searingly beautiful, just falls flat. Where's the organ? The strings in tremolo sound so weak. This part is so poorly recorded.
In the Epilogue, the wind passages followed by the strings needs so much more emotion to pull it off successfully, and it's so sadly lacking here.
Given that Thielemann is doing so much Richard Strauss, you'd think he might be a little better with it, but he generally takes tempi too fast, and this causes the interpretations to lose a lot of feeling.
This is an enjoyable recording, but it will not stand multiple hearings if you know the piece well.
The Rosenkavalier excerpts are really poor, but then I never liked his interpretation at the MET either.
Generally, it's the same DG SACD sound that we've all heard before (with a few rare exceptions). Overall mushy. Glassy, brittle strings, weak bass, buried woodwinds.
It's the only way to get Alpensinfonie on SACD. It's not horrible, but just not memorable despite it's few "moments". Thankfully, the piece is broken up with track marks so you can just skip to the good parts.
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