Search - Strauss, Zinman, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich :: Eine Alpensinfonie / Festliches Praludium

A fine version from Zinman, with great sound effects -- it's

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Alpine Symphony was written for a gigantic orchestra full of superior players, and the Zurich Tonhalle is neither, but the same holds, even more so, for the Staatskapelle Weimar, which produced a sterling bargain version under Anton Wit for Naxos in 2006. It's a great thing for consumers to be able to build libraries of satisfying performances so cheaply, especially at Amazon Marketplace.



Whether through the magic of microphones or the conductor, both ensembles sound fine, perfectly up to the task. Zinman boasts terrific engineering, with great sound effects in the climactic storm -- you clearly hear the organ, wind machine, and glokenspiel each on its own. Zinman is also musically convincing. He often has a habit of slackening the rhythm whenever the music turns slow and soft, but that's kept to a minumum in this propulsive reading. Did my hair stand on end? Not quite, but the whole experience was a thrilling ride. Wit's advantage is that he gives the music more depth and emotional weight.



Although the Alpine Sym. still carries a dodgy reputation among certain critics, I've always loved it and welcome every new performance. Given its all-out demands, my preference is for virtuoso orchestras on the order of Berlin (Karajan and Mehta) and Vienna (Previn) for their luxury, but Zinman provides one of the two best bargain versions. The bombastic Festliches Preludium contains a knockout organ part that may sway those buyers who want to be knocked out. for me, the piece is empty rhetoric, as the Alpine Sym. itself was long taken to be.



In all, this emerged as one of the high points of Zinman's Strauss cycle for Arte Nova."

Beautiful, Glorious, Exciting

ROBERT H. COLCOCK | LANDOVER HILLS, MARYLAND United States | 05/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Alpensinfonie was a very enjoyable and well done performance. I especially wanted a copy of the Festiches Praludium because it was not included on another 9 disc set of Richard Strauss' orchestrial works. David Zinman leads the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich in a Rich, Glorious and Exciting performance. Admittedly this work is not the most popular of Strauss', but to miss it is like missing the 1812 Overture."