Don Juan, Op. 20 / Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64

"Strauss's Alpine odyssey reaches new heights in this thrilling performance. Right from the gritty, menacing brass at the start, these musicians play their parts with as much conviction as any actor. As for Mariss Jansons, whose interpretations can for me occasionally sound a little heartless, the Alpine elements find him in his element. The biting freezing winds of the peaks have surely never sounded more hazardous, while the warm mountain tracks are suffused with the sun. Jansons and his players, then, manage to make this not only a vivid sensory experience but genuinely moving too."
Recording of the Month - Gramophone Magazine (Awards Issue 2008)

After the successful release of Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben in 2004, Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra once again present two familiar symphonic poems by Richard Strauss, who had close ties with the then fledgling Concertgebouw Orchestra. This CD brings together live performances of Don Juan and Eine Alpensinfonie which were recorded during the 2007-8 season and which met with great acclaim both in and outside the Netherlands.Although Don Juan and Eine Alpensinfonie were not dedicated to Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, as Ein Heldenleben was, both works sound here as if they were written for the Amsterdam-based orchestra.

"A rich, dramatic Don Juan, built on bitter-sweet woodwind timbres, magnificently bright brasses and uncommonly velvety strings." [Don Juan] The New York Times concert review