Once a rarity in both concert hall and recording studio, these days Strauss’s Alpine Symphony is positively ubiquitous, accommodating – and I generalise – Kempe’s humanity, Karajan’s grandeur, Previn’s straightforwardness, Thielemann’s subjectivity and so forth. That said, no one has quite Haitink’s sense of the piece as a rational symphonic argument. In the absence of his classic Concertgebouw reading (Philips, 4/86 – nla), the conductor is well represented by this live rendition from London’s Barbican Hall.

As previously, Haitink makes Strauss’s closeness to the Mahler of the Seventh Symphony more obvious than his rivals in “Auf der Alm” (In the mountain pasture) and elsewhere, while avoiding the purely illustrative in the preceding “Auf blumigen Wiesen” (On flowering meadows) which, as a result, some listeners might find a trifle perfunctory. Characteristically the framing nocturnal sections are thrilling in their solidity and definition rather than especially atmospheric. The performance gathers strength and intensity as it proceeds. The ripe blast of the LSO brass in full cry may be too much for some listeners as the mists clear on the summit. The acoustic properties of the venue impart little in the way of Mitteleuropean warmth and depth, though hybrid SACD encoding adds some atmosphere and (synthetically?) distanced offstage hunters’ fanfares. String sound is at once full and lean, possibly reflecting a conscious disavowal of easy sentimentality and superficial excitement.

Even without a coupling, admirers of this approach should not hesitate to acquire an archetypal example of Haitink’s unobtrusive podium manner. There are decent notes and the cover artwork is attractive, albeit Swiss rather than Bavarian in origin.