The doyen of European conductors presents favourite repertoire with an ensemble closely associated with the history and traditions of orchestral music.

The last of Haydn鈥檚 symphonies, written while he was living in London, proved an instant critical and commercial success. Not so the Strauss, part-elegy for Mahler, part-celebration of the composer himself. Mingling childhood memories of a schoolboy mountaineering expedition with a deeper vision of man鈥檚 place on earth, the work was received rather sniffily in Britain until dedicated interpreters such as Bernard Haitink arrived to change all that.

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Discover the Music Download a short audio guide published on the day about a key work in tonight鈥檚 Prom: Andrew McGregor talks about R. Strauss's An Alpine Symphony.听 Latest: This guide is now available. Sorry for any disappointment caused by the publishing delay. On the page listing all the downloadable guides you can find it near the top of the list, therefore out of sequence with the other guides in the list.