SIEGMUND VON HAUSEGGER (1872-1948): Natursymphonie for Large Orchestra and Chorus.

Description: Hausegger was known mostly as a conductor (and left some recordings still available now and then); he only wrote four other orchestral works and two operas. This massive work, completed in 1911, requires a huge orchestra with a vast percussion section, mixed choir and organ. The composer described it as a "profession of faith" but this is faith in nature, a deist faith in which transfiguration and apotheosis are to be found in the rugged outdoors of the Austrian Alps. Unlike Strauss' An Alpine Symphony, this is not a travelogue or a "look how opulently I can orchestrate" exercise in virtuosity - all the motivic material comes from the opening horn call, making the radiance and elemental fury of nature depicted all the more impressive for its never quoting anyone or anything else, including folk music. The recording will nail you to your sofa and, once you get past discussions of old guidebooks to Graz and the proper rearing of children and public education in the usual logorrheic note by Eckhardt van den Hoogen, you'll actually find some pertinent comments on the symphony, followed by a very long quote from Hausegger's own introduction to the work written in 1913/14. German-English text. Cologne Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra; Ari Rasilainen.