Beethoven’s much-loved ‘Pastoral’ Symphony conveys the peace and happiness that the composer found in the natural world in music full of drama and wonder, complete with episodes describing a babbling brook, enchanting birdsong and a tumultuous storm.

It is a mountain tempest that Strauss portrays in his Alpine Symphony, a piece that charts a day’s climbing from the foreboding of night to its glorious vision from the summit. Written on a grand scale, and for an enormous orchestra including organ, a huge battery of percussion and an off-stage brass band, the Symphony summons a majestic vision that is the ideal canvas for Runnicles and his orchestra.