Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season September-October 2015 | Page 18

An Alpine Symphony is a symphony in
name only; Strauss scholar Norman Del
Mar more appropriately calls it “a free
descriptive fantasia.” In 22 interlocking
sections covering a 24-hour period, it describes the young Richard Strauss’ ascent
of an Alpine peak in August 1879, when
he was 15. Immediately after the hike,
he described it to a friend: “Recently, we
made a great hiking party to the top of the
Heimgarten, on which day we walked for
twelve hours. At two in the morning, we
rode on a handcart to the village, which
lies at the foot of the mountain. Then we
climbed by the light of lanterns in pitchdark night and arrived at the peak after a
five-hour march. There one has a splendid
view: Lake Stafelsee, Riegsee … then
the Isar valley with mountains, Ötz and
Stubeir glaciers, Innsbruck mountains.
…The next day I described the whole
hike on the piano. Naturally huge tone
paintings and smarminess à la Wagner.”
This memory was reinforced daily for the
older Strauss by the superb views of the
Bavarian Alps he could see from his study
window in the luxurious new villa his
operatic profits had recently enabled him
to build at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Despite the specific titles given each
section in the scor K\