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In "An Alpine Symphony," composer Richard Strauss uses music as an artist uses pigment, illustrating the arduous ascent of a mountaintop with painterly skill. Listeners experience a hopeful sunrise full of birdsong, balmy meadows and babbling streams, a frightening glacial traverse and the thrill of mastering the summit.

That's the metaphor to be explored as the Utah Symphony prepares to perform the huge and dramatic tone poem on the final concert of its 2011-12 season. The orchestra also is performing Beethoven's delicate and restrained Symphony No. 1, the conclusion of a seasonlong countdown through his nine symphonies. The Beethoven symphony is the apex of a very long climb for these musicians.

Concertmaster Ralph Matson said working through the Beethoven symphonies in reverse order has been critical to gleaning maximum advantage from the experience.

The cycle commenced with the expansive Symphony No. 9 ("Ode to Joy"), which requires a large orchestra and choir. Since then, the journey has been toward smaller and smaller works of increasingly transparent detail.

"There was the sense of being a large orchestra, with a large sense of sound and articulation, and starting to refine that, to take it down to basics," Matson said. "The idea is of working at an almost molecular level — a sense of creating big by mastering small."

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The discipline of the Beethoven cycle • The trip through the Beethoven symphonies has been a rugged climb at times, but has produced momentum for the organization artistically and from a business standpoint, said Utah Symphony | Utah Opera CEO Melia Tourangeau.

"It's been interesting to watch the process," Tourangeau said. "There have been peaks and troughs. Thierry has huge, huge expectations and has been very demanding of the orchestra. There have been performances that were over-the-top fantastic and others he was not as pleased with. Overall, things are moving faster than anticipated. He's not letting up at all, though."

Tourangeau's strongest realization of artistic benefits accruing from the intense concentration on Beethoven's symphonies came last month when the orchestra performed a Romantic work that's beloved in Utah: Mahler's Symphony No. 4.

"This has been part of Thierry's purpose in having the discipline of the Beethoven," Tourangeau said. "The orchestra, when they get into the Romantic repertoire, can live in the moment and create something special. That's where I saw the most change — the energy in the Mahler. It is repertoire the orchestra has done quite a bit, but this was really exceptional."

The benefits don't end there. US | UO budgeted a 12 percent increase over last season's ticket revenue and was $150,000 ahead of the projection as it neared the end of this season (with two weekends of concerts yet to be performed and counted at the time of the interview).

Though the opera side of the company fell short of its ambitious revenue goals, the Utah Symphony's Masterworks and Pops series more than made up the difference, she said.

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Music making — and reputation building • Tourangeau noted that the Utah Symphony's reputation is growing apace with its bottom line. That's thanks to the international roster of guest conductors and soloists Fischer has brought to the Abravanel Hall podium, who are spreading praise of the Utah Symphony in their home communities and as they travel.

"It's building our reputation worldwide," Tourangeau said. "[Fischer's] plan is to build relationships with some of these guest conductors and have them come back every other year to help build the orchestra with strengths they bring to the podium that are different from his."

Fischer loves symbols and underscores the meaning of the choice of "An Alpine Symphony" as the showcase work for the season's apex — and not just because the Utah Symphony will conquer the summit of its Beethoven cycle on the same program.

The performance of the Alpine Symphony cements the relationship between Fischer, who hails from the land of the Swiss Alps, and Utah, land of the majestic Wasatch range.

"I had other offers with other similar orchestras," Fischer said. "I chose to come here mainly for the project, but also for the quality of life. I love this fantastic scenery. I love to be in it. And this piece is an homage to nature."

Fischer describes "An Alpine Symphony" as a personal story from Strauss' life, in which he climbs a daunting mountain peak while dealing with personal struggles.

"It's very dramatic, and sometimes extravagant, because that's his way of writing," Fischer said. "What I like in this pieces is that it's always related to us as we identify ourselves in nature. Every phrase, every sound, every exaggeration has a relation to nature."

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Climb every mountain • Matson finds playing "An Alpine Symphony" to be a profound experience. "In addition to the cheap thrills of a sonic spectacular, there is a level of great spiritual depth in the music," he said. "There is raw excitement in just hearing the piece, but also something very moving, very devotional."

The season-concluding concert opens with "St. Vitus in the Kettle," a recent work by English composer Simon Holt. The Utah Symphony will give the world premiere of a new work by Holt next season, and "St. Vitus in the Kettle," which depicts the apocryphal escape of St. Vitus from a boiling caldron of lead, is meant to introduce the composer to the Utah Symphony's audience.

Tourangeau looks forward to other treats next season: the return of superstar violinist Hilary Hahn and a cycle of music by Mendelssohn — which Fischer planned as a further challenge for the Utah Symphony.

That's how the view looks from the summit of the Beethoven symphonies: more music to be made, more work to be done, more mountains to climb. —

Ludwig's last stand

The Utah Symphony concludes its 2011-12 season and its countdown of Beethoven's symphonies. Music director Thierry Fischer conducts.

When • May 25 and 26 at 8 p.m.

Where • Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $17-$51 (with student discounts available; tickets increase $5 on day of show); 801-355-ARTS or http://www.utahsymphony.org. —

And about that heckelphone

"An Alpine Symphony" was written in 1915. Despite its title, the work isn't structured as a symphony. It flows instead through 22 sections, each with an imaginative title suggesting a difficult and beautiful progression up a daunting mountain peak.

The Utah Symphony will be expanded from 86 to 101 players to play the mammoth tone poem. The piece calls for an additional player in each wind section, a total of nine horns (four of the horn players double on Wagner tuba), extra timpani and harp, and an organ.

Another unusual requirement is a heckelphone, a double-reed instrument similar to the oboe, but pitched an octave lower. Only about 150 heckelphones have been produced; the Utah Symphony is renting one from the San Francisco Symphony.

Utah Symphony music director Thierry Fischer was so adamant about finding room in the Utah Symphony budget to perform "An Alpine Symphony" on the final concert of the 2011-12 season that he's paying the salaries of 17 additional players himself. (Not every orchestra member plays in every concert because of the specific instrumentation involved.)