The art of Karajan

[lee]

Good day to one and all. Firstly, I'd like to endorse Beckenigge's message of congratulations to Linda for expanding the site to include a forum. I hope that it creates many new friendships with other like-minded people in the classical music world.
Secondly, I thought that I'd spend a little time explaining how I came to revere the artistry of Herbert von Karajan. I was quite young at the time - 14 I think - when I had been exploring the world of classical music for two or three years. At the time I was not able to appreciate variances in interpretation and orchestral execution, so my guide to which records to borrow from the library was dictated by the artwork on the covers and the name of the work in question ! So when the Saint Seans Organ Symphony was due to played on Radio 3, the title seemed so grand and intriguing that I arranged to be late for school so that I could hear it. As luck would have it, the performance was a new release from HvK and the BPO and the music moved me so much that I went to my local library (after school !)and borrowed their own recording so that I could hear it again. Their recording though was the famous Barenboim/Chicago SO performance and as fine as it was, I couldn't get the Karajan interpretation out of my mind. It happened again shortly after too, as I was participating in a school performance of the Brahms' Requiem - our Music Master clearly revered the Klemperer/Philharmonia performance and as such based his interpretation as close as he could to it - and I thoroughly enjoyed my own (probably rather poor) contribution to the proceedings. So much so that the weekly trip to the library resulted in procuring their copy of the work; and this time the only version available was the Karajan 1976 EMI performance from Berlin. My astonishment when first listening to the opening bars of this recording - those wonderful Berlin basses, hushed, so beautiful, yet incredibly intense - contrasted starkly to what I had been hearing both in school and from the Klemperer performance that was occasionally played to us. My conversion was completed upon hearing the Handelian splendour and gravitas that Karajan brought later on in the performance to such movements as "Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras" and "Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt". From then on, eventually guided by Gramophone and the Penguin Stereo Guide, I always made an effort to listen to what was considered the critical choice of a recording as well as Karajan's and strangely enough, nearly always preferred the HvK performance. That is not to say that every recording of his is perfect, the best or even my favourite - but many of them are. The reason for this was touched upon by Simon Rattle in a recent interview who commented upon Karajan's "very, very profound sense of pulse" to which I would add resulted in a feeling of tempi that had an inevitable rightness about them. The sound he was able to generate from his orchestras too is also extraordinary, although I am not bothered by the "plushness" that seems to irk some people (as it bothers me in recordings by Stokowski sometimes); rather it is the sense of grandeur that I find so appealing.
So my question to my fellow Karajan-forumites is - what is it that you find so great about Karajan's art and at what point did this realisation happen ? Looking forward to reading your responses, Lee

[~Linda~]

Thank you for your interesting posting Lee. Here are my feelings about "The art of Karajan":

I never had the opportunity to see Karajan in concert so my experiences relate only to audio and video recordings. I had always enjoyed listening to classical music, although not being able to read music or play an instrument; I had, therefore, always felt that the finer details of understanding were inaccessible to me. In 1991 we bought a Laserdisc player and the first disc I played was Karajan's 1973 Unitel version of Brahms First Symphony. I found the whole experience totally absorbing with the filming not distracting but positively aiding me to a better understanding of the music. I bought other Karajan films and CDs read biographies and became, for want of a better word, "hooked".

My musical tastes are basically Austro-German romantic orchestral music particularly Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss but Sibelius is also a great favourite of mine. To me, the rhythm, the phrasing, the whole Karajan sound with its attention to detailed precisely balanced tone and dynamics makes the music last forever in my head. Particularly in the music of Sibelius and Bruckner I get an overwhelming sense of completeness and "rightness" at the end of a symphony. For example, I feel Bruckner Symphony No 8 conducted by Karajan in 1988 is like an epic journey and no matter how many times I hear it I am never disappointed at the end, the conclusion always leaving me overwhelmed. With Sibelius the rhythmic drive is not only heard but also "felt" with transitions between movements in Symphony No 2 and particularly in Symphony No 5 inducing once again this sense of absolute inevitable "rightness". How often I feel that Karajan performances are not only heard with our ears but felt deep inside.

[john]

Following on from what Lee and Linda have said.
I first hear music conducted by Karajan in about 1972, my father had an LP of 'Opera Intermezzi' some wonderful tunes beatifully played by the BPO.
I have no understanding of music but I knew that this LP had a perfect feel about it, my father use to say that Karajan could make the violins 'sing'.
I became hooked and started to buy as many Karajan recordingds as possible, I then met John Hunt who at that time worked in a classical music record shop in London, he helped me build a library of recordings and we are still friends today and regularly swap recordings etc.
The next step was to go to concerts at the Festival Hall in London to see the maestro and BPO live.
The highlight was of course a visit to Salzburg in 1978 where in 3 days I attended performances of Don Carlos and Salome.
I agree with Linda that the Karajan recordings sound 'right' the tempo, dynamics, tone etc all take you to the end of a journey that is complete and worthwhile.
No performance somes this up for me like the DVD of the Strauss Alpine Symphony,
If you look at Karajan after the Thuderstorm and Decent passage his body become's relaxed and it's as if he, the orchestra and the music become as one, I find the whole section through the Epilogue to the finale totally absorbing.

Welldone Linda for introducing the Forum to what is already and excellent website, I hope we hear soon from our friends and Karajan fans from Japan and indeed the rest of the world.

[darkehmen]

lee said:

I always made an effort to listen to what was considered the critical choice of a recording as well as Karajan's and strangely enough, nearly always preferred the HvK performance.

what is it that you find so great about Karajan's art and at what point did this realisation happen ?

I had a somewhat similar experience of coming to Karajan through recording comparison.

My father was an avid classical enthusiast, and had many of the old RCA Living Stereo recordings. He used to play them on Sundays when I was young, and I often joined him in listening to them. I believe he knew of Karajan's work, but didn't have any of his recordings, apart from a Beethoven 8th.

My own interest in classical music was propelled by seeing the film Amadeus. I was 14 when the movie came out, and I became hooked, you might say, on Eine kleine Nachtmusik. I went through many, many recordings looking for the perfect one, and I found it in an LP that basically changed my musical life. It was Karajan's 1982 digital recording of Nachtmusik (coupled with the Prokofiev First and the Grieg Holberg suite).



Something about the shimmering clarity of the string sound that I heard in the Berlin Philharmonic really caught my ear. I remember Helena Matheopoulos describing the string tone that Karajan was achieving at that time as "transparent, insubstantial," and that's exactly what compelled me.

Other recordings with full orchestras sounded muddy and imprecise, while recordings with small forces sounded empty and inadequate. But Karajan's recording had each note perfectly articulated. There was that crystalline clarity in the sound, even though the presence of a full string section was palpable. It was so far superior to anything else I'd heard, that I knew I'd found an ideal musical interpreter.

I was fortunate because right at that time, Karajan was re-recording for digital all of the works that captivate a novice aficionado. There were the three Johann Strauss LPs, the Albinoni/Pachelbel disc, the Nutcracker, the Peer Gynt, the William Tell & other orchestral works disc, the Offenbach overtures collection, the Haydn symphonies, Also sprach Zarathustra, and ultimately, the digital Beethoven cycle.




It was like he was recording, one by one, every popular classical piece that I was discovering at the time, and wanted to own. And each time, when I made comparisons, I found Karajan's recording preferable.

I still remember revelations like:

-the last movement of the Beethoven 7th: no one else had the ferocity of attack that I heard in his recording
-the first movement of the Beethoven 6th: there was that crystalline, transparent string sound again
-the Trepak in the Nutcracker: no one else built that final crescendo with as much tension and excitement as he achieved
-In the Hall of the Mountain King: again, a crescendo that no one else seemed to build from hushed murmurings to explosive frenzy the way Karajan did

And on and on...

Although Karajan is known as a late-Romantic specialist, it was many years before I became attuned to the Romantic sound--which, when I was young, seemed a bit dissonant to me. I initially preferred Viennese Classicism, which is why I'm puzzled whenever critics favour other interpreters. For me, his recordings from the early digital era, in their crispness and precision, are perfect for Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and I enjoy his Baroque recordings from that era as well.

Years later, I slowly moved into the later Romantic repertoire by way of Bruckner, and today, I'd have to agree that my favourite Karajan recordings are his Strauss tone poems, his Bruckner symphonies, etc. I'm still "learning" Sibelius, and I feel it's a shame that Karajan never filmed any Sibelius symphonies, as watching the Strauss performances on film helped me a great deal in discovering the depths of these works.

[Rosy]

Thanks,Lee for your words,your memories,your questions.
About music, much remains without answers or with a thousand answers.
It's beautiful compare our feelings.
HvK: we like to listen to his recordings, fine, very fine but they are only recordings.
I wonder what we heard during a performance "live" !

When I was 4 or 5 years old, in the evening, I listened to the radio; when the presenter announced:"......conductor Herbert von Karajan", I listened in silence and felt that was all right, just terribly all right.

He wanted to be a synthesis between Toscanini and Furtwrängler......

Rosy

Just my small thoughts!

[David]

I would like to start by echoing the previous comments in this thread by Lee, Beckenigge and John concerning Linda’s site as it moves from strength to strength. The site is now compulsive viewing for all admirers of the Great Man. It is apparent that eminent visitors to the site have included Richard Osborne (Life and Work / Karajan Family) and John Hunt (Visitor Comments). Also in Items Wanted there is a short entry by Friedrich Witt, now aged 78 years. Witt was co-principal first double bass in the BPO from the final few months of Furtwängler’s reign in 1954 right through to the Abbado years; he retired in 1993. I also know of another BPO musician, with Karajan for 24 years, who is well aware of Linda’s site.

Here now are a few of my own thoughts on Karajan. It was in 1963 that I became aware of his work when I heard for the first time the 1962 recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies which had just started to circulate. Initially, I have to admit, I didn’t pay too much attention to the conductor because at that stage of course I hadn’t heard the name previously! It was the refinement and the splendour of the orchestral playing, both in equal measures, that left their mark. In particular I remember the integration and musicianship of the various woodwind players, and the way each seemed to play to the other, thus achieving that wonderful ensemble. In particular the playing of the first oboe (especially in the Eroica‘s funeral march) came as a revelation to me - difficult to put into words, but possibly sweet, rich, round, clear and even ravishing come to mind. It was completely different from anything I had ever heard previously and was also amazingly even throughout the range, even on those awkward high notes. Later I learnt that this was Lothar Koch, and since then I followed his career with much interest right up until his extremely tragic death in 2003. Of course in an orchestra like the BPO with co-principal wind players, I have sometimes been slightly frustrated over the years in perhaps not being able to identify for certain who was playing a particular solo in a given recording. However I am fairly certain that it was Koch in the 1962 Eroica. At that time the co-principal oboist was Karl Steins who had been promoted to first oboe by Furtwängler in a much discussed incident. One day out of the blue the conductor apparently simply demoted the existing first oboist and promoted Steins - just like that! Koch and Steins had a very similar sound and tone, but I believe that Koch’s extremely energetic, intense and joyful personality always shone through. Lee has already mentioned the BPO basses, and I totally agree with him on this in that this section of the orchestra seemed to be the equal of the first violins for accuracy of ensemble and intonation. They were always capable of the most delicate shading, but also had the capacity to underpin the whole orchestra in tutti passages by projecting forth the most gloriously rich and penetrating tone. They were really quite remarkable and had no equal - anywhere.

Apologies. I am digressing …………………… back to 1963.

I found that during the coming weeks and months listening to this DG Beethoven cycle became almost an addiction. I then decided, quite impulsively I suppose, that I must somehow and somewhere hear these forces in a live performance. This was quite difficult to organise at the time as I lived in Lancashire and had a very limited budget. However where there's a will…..as they say; and so it was that on 31st January 1964 I was seated in the Royal Festival Hall in London waiting for the arrival on the platform of the Maestro to conduct the BPO in the first of three concerts of works by Brahms. These three concerts left an indelible impression, possibly even more so than 1962 recordings. I later remember looking through several newspaper reviews of the concerts but was surprised at how some of them seemed to be curiously negative. I wondered if I was missing something. However I later discovered the reasons for these opinions, and they are very nicely summarised by John Hunt in his excellent contribution to Linda’s Visitor Comments section -
www.karajan.co.uk/visitor.html#visit8

However not all the comments were negative and Richard Osborne in A Life in Music recalls a review of the final concert in the 1964 Brahms cycle by William Mann, The Times music critic -

“Unhappy the vainglorious soloist who plays Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, for the solo oboe-playing in this orchestra attains a standard of artistry that is almost bound to make the melody of the Adagio the musical high point of the work …..”

No prizes from me for guessing who this refers to!

Following on from this 1964 Brahms Cycle, I went on to attend a total of 40 performances conducted by Herbert von Karajan over the period from 1964 up until his final appearance in London on 6th October 1988, only 9 months before his death. In Great Britain these were in London and Edinburgh (I had to miss the Oxford concert), but also I visited Salzburg for the Easter Festivals in 1968, 1971 and 1972, and the Summer Festivals in 1967 and 1969. Most of the performances were of course with the BPO, although five were with the VPO, and then there was the famous 1967 Salzburg concert with George Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra.

The performances comprised of 6 operas, 33 concerts and a rehearsal (I was lucky to have been able to obtain a free ticket for a patrons’ rehearsal at the 1972 Easter Festival).

Five of the Salzburg performances featured Karajan’s protégée, Gundula Janowitz, who is my favourite singer of all time.

However, mortgage payments commenced in 1973 and an ordinary bod didn’t possess the wherewithal to service these and purchase Easter Festival tickets, and so the visits to Salzburg ceased.

So what made Karajan’s conducting and interpretations so very special?

It has all been said before, but I think that Lee has highlighted the crucial issue of tempo as being so important here. Somehow Karajan always seemed to arrive at the most appropriate tempo at any given time so that any changes and transitions within a particular movement could be accommodated within the single overarching pulse. This is particularly true in his interpretations of Bruckner where other performances I have heard feel fragmented with the dreaded loud means fast and soft means slow stop-go approach.

I also believe that this sense of tempo is possibly one of the reasons for the so-called Karajan sound which John Hunt has interestingly referred to as tonal concentration. For example in slower passages the musicians were always given just the optimum amount of time to sustain notes for their absolute full value in such a way within the tempo that sometimes in my imagination I almost can sense a reluctance to leave a note by savouring it for as long as is possible before moving forward. I’m not of course implying anything untoward here, it’s just that this is my best attempt to describe Karajan’s wonderful legato/sostenuto sound.

I know that Karajan attached great importance to his own ability to sustain a tempo without drifting into a faster or slower speed by accident. Now I remember hearing or reading somewhere (I’m not exactly sure where now) that he undertook a test/experiment on a computer which I think occurred at one of the German Universities. The object of the exercise was to beat and sustain various given tempi into the computer for a period of time. I imagine that it would have been something like 39 beats per minute for a while, then perhaps be followed by 105 etc. etc. Anyway I seem to remember that the outcome was a 2% overall error after an extensive session. That’s astonishing.

Another feature of Karajan’s conducting was the huge dynamic range he obtained from his orchestra during performances. Of course this was only possible because of the outstanding quality of his musicians; very hushed playing is so difficult. Also though, they were able to take even the steepest dynamic gradient into their stride without any hint of strain. I greatly admire the music of Richard Strauss and was fortunate in that four of the concerts I attended contained his music. It is interesting though that the one work on each of these four occasions was Heldenleben! I mention this in order to attempt to describe the awesome dynamics in the shindy which is the battle section in Karajan’s performances of this work - percussion playing of extraordinary roundness and fullness that took away the strident edge without removing the guts from the sound; magnificent burnished and burning brass playing of immense power, yet without ever being strident or overblown; decibels in abundance, but never noisy; in fact very vivid memories to savour for a long time.

In 1990, the year following Karajan’s death, the BPO visited Great Britain for 2 concerts in London with Daniel Barenboim, and then again later in the year for 2 concerts in Glasgow with Kurt Sanderling. I attended all of these four concerts. The Glasgow concerts were in aid of the European City of Culture events (topical just now), and also coincided with the opening of the new Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. You’ve probably guessed what comes next, and yes you’re absolutely correct! The concerts were fantastic, of course, but on occasions the essential characteristics I had become used to hearing in a Karajan performance were missing. The BPO of course still existed in all its glory, but Karajan’s BPO was/is no more.

HVK. RIP.

[lee]

Hi David - thank you for your comments. Your memories of the HvK/BPO concerts are very pertinent - the first time I saw Karajan live was aged 17 in the 1985 London concert you mention with Ein Heldenleben. I remember the first half of the concert being devoted to the Beethoven 4th symphony and marvelled at the sparkle and excitement generated in the last movement of a work that Karajan and the orchestra must have played numerous times before. Fast forward to 1990, a year after Karajan's passing and I also saw the BPO perform the Eroica in London conducted by Barenboim - same personnel, same composer, yet the sound was stodgy and earth bound, lacking the fire and line that Karajan inevitably brought to this music (In fairness, the following night they did the Bruckner 7 - a concert originally advertised as being conducted by Ozawa, hence my absence - which was supposed to have been much better). In my opinion, the orchestra never subsequently achieved the heights that it did under Karajan after he left them in April 1989, which I find somewhat ironic considering their role in his departure. Of particular note was another Heldenleben they did, this time under Rattle a few years ago at the Proms, which was singularly awful and is credited with having elicited a boo from the audience at its close. So like Toscannini and the NYPO, Karajan's shadow looms over the orchestra even now, many years after his death.

As an aside, did you know that Karajan originally wanted to programme the Alpensinfonie for the 1985 London concert, but was persuaded to change it for something more "mainstream" by the RFH management ? Maybe they thought the concert wouldn't sell out ?!

Best regards, Lee

[David]

Hello Lee - thanks for your reply. Yes, I do agree about the 1990 BPO Barenboim Eroica concert. I have perhaps become accustomed over the years to being tactful when discussing the work of others; sometimes it‘s just easier! However in this concert I did sense some anxiety even before the start of the first work - Schubert’s Unfinished. Did you notice a bass player gesticulating ’agitato’ to an unseen person in the wings? Also did you see a horn player rushing onto the platform with seconds to spare? In addition I heard a cracked or even misplaced note from a horn in the Eroica, although I wouldn’t know if it was the same player who had rushed in. The whole thing had an anxious feel producing exactly the result you described.

As you say the second concert with Bruckner 7 showed more commitment, and I still retain an image in my mind from this performance of Zepperitz wrestling with his bass at one point in the Bruckner.

The BPO performance of Heldenleben with Rattle you mention was at the 2003 Proms. It is interesting that at the first of the two concerts in 2003 they played the Rite of Spring. This combination, the Rite followed by Heldenleben, is exactly what Karajan had programmed in for the visit to London in May 1972. The 1972 Heldenleben was notable, amongst many other things, for the solo violin playing of Michel Schwalbé which to my ear was superior to that of Brandis in 1976, and Spierer in 1985. I remember at the 1972 concert the sight of both Karajan and Schwalbé coming back onto the empty platform, to rapturous applause, a minute or two after the orchestra had departed.

Single sheet handbill for the 1972 concerts.
Note the ticket prices!

Anyway back to the 2003 Rattle concerts which I did attend. Yes, the loud boo by a member of the audience (not me by the way) was slightly embarrassing and seemed to throw everyone, including Rattle himself, for a couple of seconds. I would just mention the closing passages in this 2003 Heldenleben. I have always considered Karajan’s reading of these final moments in Heldenleben to be nothing short of miraculous in the way that he somehow captures almost an unearthly stillness, with the solo horn and violin suspended above, whilst somehow still managing to keep the whole thing moving. However I have to say that in 2003 Rattle simply skated over these passages in what seemed to be just a few moments, in my opinion completely missing the point. I know that an EMI recording was released in 2006 of a live BPO performance of Heldenleben with Rattle, but I haven’t heard it.

Rattle undoubtedly has very great strengths in certain repertoire, but possibly he is not yet ready for Strauss. I get the impression that he doesn’t seem to touch it much anyway.

However it’s not all bad news these days, and I occasionally hear on the grapevine of issues of interest coming from within the BPO. For example, it is generally considered that the bassoons are perhaps better nowadays. During most of Karajan’s time these players were Manfred Braun and Günter Piesk. Piesk had a lovely solo sound and he recorded an excellent version of the Mozart Concerto for EMI with Karajan in 1971, but perhaps Braun was not quite his equal.

The opening solo in the Rite of Spring in the 2003 Proms concert (a source of nightmares for most bassoonists) was played by Daniele Damiano and I think that you will never hear it done better - floating in as if from heaven with rounded full tone, completely filling the RAH and with no sign of strain or the usual anxiety. I also liked the way in which Rattle didn’t conduct these opening bars, but simply gestured once to Damiano, almost as if to invite him to participate in his own time. A few seconds into the solo however, the sound of a mobile phone filled the hall, so Rattle stopped and then restarted! I remember burying my head into my hands at this point. You could not have made it up.

I heard Karajan conduct the Rite of Spring twice (1971 in Salzburg and 1972 in London); but with Braun playing the opening solo on each occasion.

I have the impression that Rattle and the BPO will be performing again at the Proms later this year although I haven’t seen this confirmed. I say this because they are scheduled to appear in Liverpool on 4th September. Hopefully Mahler 9 might be on the agenda in the RAH as they have done it recently whilst on tour, but hopefully no Strauss - I never thought I would ever say that!

Who would have ever imagined in the Centenary Year, that the BPO would be performing in Liverpool, the 2008 European Capital City of, er, Culture.

Best Wishes -
David

[john]

Lee/David
I also attended the Beethoven 3rd at the festival hall, it was as expected a BPO concert nothing special, but we must remember we were hanging on to memories of Karajan, nothing was ever going to replace the magic, but we hoped, in vain of course.

I have also observed recently a Rattle BPO prom on TV, Bruckner 7th, it was a farce, the climaxes were so self endulgent, even criminal.
I just had to return to some 'live' Karajan recordings on CD I have of the 7th just to be reminded of the miracle in the way he and the BPO end the symphony, pure genius.

I read somewhere recently that the Berlin public where unhappy with Rattle, basically because he is'nt Karajan, this just about somes up the situation perfectly.

I also attended the 1981 London Bruckner 5th, this was however originally planned for Mahler's 9th, I understand pressure from elsewhere caused the change.
I agree with the comments regarding Heldenleben, I was at the London concerts in 1976 and 1985, the later stands out for me as being the best but overall not much in it. the finale is pretty much another Karajan miracle.

Best regards
John

[K620]

Just a word of introduction and thanks from a newcomer to the forum.

I've visited Linda's website regularly in recent years, always with great enjoyment & profit, and I've already derived much enjoyment & profit from visiting the new forum. My thanks to Linda, and to the forum's various contributors!

I'd be hard pressed to say how I came to appreciate Karajan's art (to the extent that I can appreciate it). His recordings have always been a familiar sound in my world, ever since childhood. I fear, in my younger days, I took them rather for granted. They were... well, they were the 'normal' way to perform music. How else would you play Beethoven or Brahms?

I think in the last couple of decades I've learnt most about him from watching his films. For me, the visual side has added an extra dimension, a kind of running commentary 'spoken' in the conductor's own voice. That has deepened my understanding of many of his interpretations.

This is ironic, because while Karajan was still alive, in the 1970s and after, I often felt frustrated at the amount of time he spent playing around with the film medium. Instead, I wanted him to go on and make audio recordings of works that he hadn't recorded before (what wouldn't I give for the unrealized Karajan Dvorak 7th mentioned in another thread of this forum!).

In those days, I couldn't imagine that it would ever be financially feasible to release his films to the general public. I thought they would be preserved only in archives, like the Toscanini telecasts (which, in those days, none of us ever got to see, though we all knew they mysteriously existed somewhere).

As for Karajan's idea of leaving a legacy of filmed performances that future generations could watch in their own homes... well, I thought it was an optimistic pipe dream, a kind of science fiction fantasy, which might just possibly take place in some far distant world in the future, and even then would probably never take place at all. The world wouldn't ever be greatly interested in such things.

How little I knew!

[lee]

Hi John. Your comments are very interesting - I heard the radio broadcast of the 1985 Heldenleben at Christmas that same year and was quite struck at many subtle differences between it and the near contemporaneous DG recording; is it just me, or did HvK take the final part of the work slower at the RFH than he did in the recording studio ? It has often been said that Karajan was a very practical musician, varying his interpretation to suit whatever circumstances were facing him at the time - so, was his slower Hero's Farewell a reaction to the RFH's notoriously poor acoustics, or was it because he felt it may well be the final time he conducted it ?

I was somewhat cross that I had to miss the Rattle Bruckner broadcast as I was away on holiday, so your assessment of the performance is most welcome. That said, I've got (on a very poor copy) a broadcast of the same work the BPO gave with Celibidache in 1994 - now that is self indulgent !!

Finally, did you get to see the Centenary Concert in Berlin - if so, how was it ?

Best regards, Lee

[lee]

Hi K620. Your comments reminded me of an interview given by Maris Jansons during which he described Karajan as being like an eagle flying high in the sky, seeing further than the rest us. Certainly it's amazing how he correctly predicted the importance of CDs and filmed performances, yet somehow realized that quadrophonic stereo recordings weren't going to work ! Best regards, Lee

[K620]

Thanks very much Lee, and I love your Jansons story. I guess I spend a lot of my time looking up at eagles!

[Rosy]

Hello K620, and Lee,


......H.v.K. like an EAGLE in the sky......!!!


If you want to read this moving story, you can find it in the " Anecdotes ".

I hope I have made comprehensible!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rosy