Die Alpen

In Die Alpen, Heinrich Sutermeister created a musical setting of the monumental poem of the same name by the Swiss physician, natural scientist and poet Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777). The dramatic, cleverly illustrative orchestral music would have functioned well on its own as a symphonic poem, but Sutermeister chose to turn it into a melodrama – perhaps because the world premiere was due to be broadcast on the radio. The text begins with a description of the Alpine countryside and a shepherd’s idyll, and concludes by displaying the frugal life of the farmers living in harmony with nature as preferable to the life of city dwellers: ‘A despised people laughing in the face of toil and poverty; only modest nature brings happiness.’