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What do you get if you blow into a tuba full of water? With a little imagination it’s the sound of a squirrel eating, the opening salvo of Between Trees by Kristine Tjøgersen. The Norwegian composer’s ingenious nature poem drew on extended techniques and novel effects, such as prepared harp and strings, as it led us beneath the forest floor to explore the mysterious fungal threads that connect the roots of trees and plants like some vast natural internet.
Leaving the Scandinavian forests behind, the London Philharmonic’s whistlestop travelogue paused for breath in sun-drenched central France to savour a selection of Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne. Louise Alder was the soloist, the languid radiance of her creamy soprano complementing the composer’s rose-tinted orchestrations. Edward Gardner kept the orchestra on a low light while pointing up the music’s more pungent elements. For her part, Alder brought colour and the gift of storytelling to these tales of lovelorn shepherdesses, opportunistic country lads and conceited quails.
Our final destination was the Bavarian Alps and Richard Strauss’s grandiose tone poem An Alpine Symphony. Opening with the sound of the mountain itself on four trombones and two tubas, the composer throws everything at the orchestrations bar the kitchen sink as he attempts to depict nature in all its glory over the course of a day. Gardner proved a musical Baedeker here, leading his merry band up hill and down dale with big-boned phrasing and a warm romantic sweep. The LPO in turn conjured shady woods, cascading waterfalls and a field of cows you could almost smell.
Along the way, Gardner found fleeting oases of calm, drawing out delicate chamber textures despite the humungous forces on the stage in front of him. He didn’t stint the big moments though, like the organ-boosted vision on the summit. The tumultuous storm that soaked the hikers as they scrambled back down featured a deafening cacophony of drums supplemented by wind machine and thunder sheet. All that remained was to usher in the epilogue and a portentous return of the opening motif. Mankind may pass, Strauss seemed to say, yet the mountain will endure.
