His Legacy for Home Video - Complete DVD BOX

[David]

Hello Catalin,

Yes! When the package arrived from Japan last year, the black presentation box was contained within a robust brown cardboard outer box on which the weight was specified as 4.0 kilograms. Just for curiosity I have checked this now and arrived at more or less this figure:

The black presentation box and its contents - 3.430 kilograms
The brown outer cardboard box - 0.420 kilograms
Total - 3.850 kilograms

I hope that this will be of use.

I have found this to be a most interesting purchase and in my opinion a wonderful tribute by our Japanese friends during the centenary year. Having said that though I think that it was rather an extravagance on my part as I already had three of the discs and I think it would have been possible to acquire the remainder individually at less cost. However, knowing me, I suspect that I probably wouldn’t have got round to this, but now I am pleased to have this phase of Karajan’s work in its entirety.

The dimensions of the black presentation box (in millimetres) are:

305 wide
195 high
175 deep

I hope you decide to ‘take the plunge’ and place an order. Please let us know if you do.

Best Wishes -
David

[Catalin N. R.]

Hello David,

Thank you very much for having disturbed yourself just to answer my question. Your report is very detailed, and should be a good guide for all those who want to buy the DVD box. Of course, on the market are always in circulation all kind of bootlegs. This is the reason why your report is so precious.

As for me, yes I'll buy the DVD box set this month.

Thanks again.

With kind regards,
Catalin

[eidos73]

Hi everybody! Can you give the list about thr dvds included in this box that are not available on Sony Music Europe 2008 releases?
In Europe in 2008 Sony Music release a remastered 21 works for 26 dvds. In this box we find 37 dvds.
I try to translate by Google the link in japanese that I find in this discussion but it's no easy for me.
Thank you so much for helping me, Luca ?

[charlesb]

I don’t have the box. I know that other people on the forum do, so perhaps they can confirm that the contents are:

Bach Violin Concerto/Magnificat (31/12/1984)
Beethoven/Brahms overtures
Beethoven Violin Concerto
Beethoven Symphonies 1,8
Beethoven Symphonies 2,3
Beethoven Symphony 3 (30/4/1982)
Beethoven Symphonies 4,5
Beethoven Symphonies 6,7
Beethoven Symphony 9
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
BPO New Year’s Eve Concert 31/12/83
BPO New Year’s Eve Concert 31/12/85
Brahms Symphonies 1,2
Brahms Requiem 05/1985
Bruckner Symphony 8
Bruckner Symphony 9
Debussy La Mer/Ravel Daphnis et Chloe Suite 2
Dvorak Symphony 8
Dvorak Symphony 9
Mozart “Coronation Mass” with Pope John Paul
Mozart Don Giovanni
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition
Respighi Pines of Rome also Mozart and R. Strauss Osaka 18/10/1984
Strauss Family VPO New Year’s Day concert 1/1/87
R.Strauss Alpine Symphony
R. Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra/ Mozart Divertimento
R. Strauss Don Quixote
R. Strauss Ein Heldenleben
R. Strauss Metamorphosen / Tod und Verklarung
R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1/Prokofiev Symphony 1 (31/12/1988)
Tchaikovsky Symphony 4
Tchaikovsky Symphony 5
Tchaikovsky Symphony 6
Verdi Requiem
Verdi Falstaff
Vivaldi Four Seasons

The DVDs in the box had the original couplings, (so for instance Dvorak's Symphonies 8 and 9 were on separate DVDs). The box included some DVDs that (so far) have only been issued in Japan, including the Respighi performance in Osaka, the Beethoven 3rd Symphony (30/4/82) and the Beethoven and Brahms overtures.

The Brahms Requiem is a different performance to the DGG CD. The same is true for the Beethoven 9th Symphony.

[eidos73]

Thank you. Also in this box Telemondial's video of “Mozart Requiem" is not included. So I think I will never realesed in dvd
Do you know other Telemondial videos laserdisc issues not yet on dvd?

[charlesb]

As I mentioned, my list may not be 100% accurate. The Mozart Requiem should have been included.

The Mozart Requiem DVD is still available in Japan. See www.hmv.co.jp/en/artist_Mozart-1756-1791_000000000018888/item_Mozart-Requiem_429067

I am not aware of any Telemondial laserdiscs that have not been released on DVD as well.
However, there are several Telemondial video recordings that have never been released in any video format, including the 1983 Beethoven 9th Symphony, the 1983 Brahms Requiem, Richard Strauss's "Four Last Songs" with Tomova-Sintov and the 1987 Salzburg Wagner concert with Jessye Norman (although her "Liebestod" is on the Sony Japan "Karajan in Salzburg" DVD).

[David]

Hello charlesb & eidos73

I have checked your listing against the contents of the Japanese centenary box.

Each of your entries represents a single DVD except in the case of the 3 Tchaikovsky Symphonies where remarkably these are all contained on a single disc.

In addition, the Mozart Requiem K626 is included along with Verdi’s Don Carlos.

The 3 operas: Don Giovanni, Rosenkavalier & Don Carlos are each contained on 2 DVDs.

There are 40 DVDs in the set and your listing contains 37 lines –
. therefore subtract 2 for the Tchaikovsky Symphonies which as I say are all on a single DVD –
. add 2 for the 2 missing works mentioned above –
. add 3 for the above mentioned operas each containing 2 DVDs –
. equals 40 DVDs.

In addition there is a ‘Navigation DVD’ which contains a short extract of about 1-2 minutes from each work.
These can be selected individually or played right through as a single stream which lasts for just over an hour.

Regards
David

[eidos73]

Thank you very much David for your reply! So my Karajan's dvd collection is almost complete.
I don't have:
Beethoven/Brahms overtures
Beethoven Symphony 3 (30/4/1982)
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
Mozart Requiem

A friend give me as a present last year on dvd from Japan:
Respighi Pines of Rome also Mozart and R. Strauss Osaka 18/10/1984 and Karajan in Salzburg (I have it on PAL LaserDisc).

[philharmonie]

May 12, 2014 22:10:30 GMT 1 charlesb said:

However, there are several Telemondial video recordings that have never been released in any video format, including the 1983 Beethoven 9th Symphony, the 1983 Brahms Requiem, Richard Strauss's "Four Last Songs" with Tomova-Sintov and the 1987 Salzburg Wagner concert with Jessye Norman (although her "Liebestod" is on the Sony Japan "Karajan in Salzburg" DVD).

Hi Charles,

Similarly, the EMI recording of the Four Seasons and the DGG Symphonies Nos . 3 & 4 by Brahms and Vienna Moldova in 1985. However, there are other than the statement in the Philharmonic Autocrat no evidence for the existance of video material. At the Telemondial cinematographer Ernst Wild was financially involved . 10 years after Karajan's death Ernst Wild said in an interview on the first day after 16 July 1989 that he would have destroyed the entire uncut video footage. Only this year, he said, but the fact that supposedly no film was cut in 1989.

In contrast, Karajan himself in 1987 spoke against Karl Löbl that he had already completed 45 productions. Quite contradictory the whole , but I tend to believe Karajan. The operation was still strongly influenced the appointment book and on the availability of the orchestras , as well as the post-production of Playback settings had to be carried out promptly . In the financially lucrative Four Seasons it was a political issue : on the one hand he wanted with the 1987 production in Berlin smooth things , on the other hand he wanted to be remembered as the opener of the Chamber Music Sales.

If you wanted to Ernst Wild given his interview in the special issue of DU (April 2014) believe, then I wonder why he has not for example cut ready to Brahms cycle, unless he would have been bound by contracts to the previously completed productions. This would certainly have been Karajan's approach, leaving nothing to chance and carry out the previously completed productions to contractual disclosure, which was the task of Uli Märkle and the administrator of the estate Werner Kupper.

Best Wishes

Tilo