This is not the first Alpensinfonie we have had from the Czech Philharmonic‚ and‚ although Ashkenazy mostly adopts faster speeds than KoÅler (conducting a valedictory account at the end of his career) the two performances have much in common. Both eschew the grandiloquence of a Karajan or a Thielemann‚ opting instead for a relatively relaxed ramble in which the orchestra’s woodwind in particular provide many incidental beauties. Unfortunately‚ there isn’t much in the way of cumulative tension. Ashkenazy‚ who brought the piece to the 1998 Proms‚ has recorded it previously with the Cleveland Orchestra‚ and I see that Michael Kennedy found this ‘outstandingly good in all the quieter and more restrained passages’. Little has changed‚ except that the Czech musicians‚ financially hard­pressed in recent years‚ are more technically fallible than you might expect‚ especially in the louder ones. The conductor’s enthusiastic welcome for the ‘Sunrise’ elicits a patchy response: the players seem taken by surprise by his stringendo‚ still more so by his expressive bulge 40 seconds in. At its best‚ Ashkenazy’s Strauss remains lithe and surprisingly delicate: examples abound during the ascent‚ with the vernal niceties of waterfall‚ meadow and pasture deftly sketched in. On the other hand‚ the penultimate ‘Ausklang’ section‚ the noble consummation of any interpretation in which the work’s spiritual elements emerge alongside the more obvious tone­painting‚ is here unusually clear and deliberate but startlingly prosaic. Ashkenazy’s Rosenkavalier ‘Waltz Sequence’ makeweight is more authentic‚ less generous than Thielemann’s ‘Suite’. The music­making‚ spirited enough at the start‚ turns laboured and charmless by the close‚ the natural empathy of German and Viennese orchestras largely absent. The Japanese recording is not completely successful either – full and clear‚ but with a certain attenuation at the top mainly affecting the string tone. A disappointing disc then‚ less compelling than the first instalment (Ondine‚ 6/00) and only really worth considering if you are following the series. In the main work‚ those listeners who find the listed DG recordings over the top or even politically incorrect can opt for Previn – or better still Kempe (in decent enough analogue sound though not available separately).