Post by lee on Jul 12, 2008 14:26:23 GMT 1
I'm sure many of you would have noticed this recent release from Orfeo of Karajan's performance of the Beethoven Choral Symphony with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
By chance, I have been auditioning two other Beethoven cycles recently - Haitink with the LSO and Kletzki with the Czech PO - and had reached the Choral Symphony on both when this Karajan release arrived. It was therefore most interesting to compare the three.
It has to be said that the Haitink/LSO cycle has excited many and with it's punchy rhythms and energy, it's a fine and most inexpensive cycle, an ideal compromise between recent musicological scholarship played on modern instruments. Of the whole cycle, I would say that the Fourth is exceptional (always a work that Haitink did well) and the Ninth was very good too, although the solo quartet are more forgettable than memorable.
The Kletzki cycle on Supraphon is from the mid 1960's, a return to the grand old way of playing Beethoven. The Czech PO of course had a woodwind section then to rival even Karajan's Berlin PO and there are countless moments of illumination courtesy of them, helped by the fine recorded sound and the conductor's gift for achieving clarity of sound even at the most heavily scored climaxes. In the Ninth, the Czech PO Chorus sing with great fervour and extraordinary diction - you can practically write out Schiller's Ode to Joy as they sing it to you ! However, taken as a whole it was not a cycle that, for me at any rate, resonated in the memory.
Not surprisingly, the recorded sound on the Karajan release does not afford comparable clarity. It is also transferred at quite a low level, so you will need to crank up the volume a few notches more than you are used to. Once you have done this though, you are in for a treat. This live performance, the culmination of a Beethoven Cycle given by Karajan and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in 1955, as well as being the one-thousandth concert given by the Singverein of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde since it had been founded in 1858 (and of whom Karajan was "concert director" for life), crackles with electricity from the first bar to last. Listening to the solo quartet of Lisa Della Casa, Hildegard Rossel-Majdan, Waldemar Kmentt and Otto Edelmann, it is no wonder that Haitink's London quartet didn't stand a chance when I listened to them ! The recorded sound is exceptionally well balanced and clear; although the sound is mono, the ear quickly adjusts. The booklet though regurgitates the old chestnut that Karajan's best work was done in his Philharmonia days - best to look at the pictures here than read the words. One interesting interpretive point though is the almost Furtwanglerish acceleration to the finish line in the coda of the last movement; Karajan didn't do this on either his EMI recordings with the Vienna PO or Philharmonia made around this time. That aside, this performance is very highly recommended - personally I would play it before the live Berlin PO account from the opening of the Philharmonie; and you know how good that is !
By chance, I have been auditioning two other Beethoven cycles recently - Haitink with the LSO and Kletzki with the Czech PO - and had reached the Choral Symphony on both when this Karajan release arrived. It was therefore most interesting to compare the three.
It has to be said that the Haitink/LSO cycle has excited many and with it's punchy rhythms and energy, it's a fine and most inexpensive cycle, an ideal compromise between recent musicological scholarship played on modern instruments. Of the whole cycle, I would say that the Fourth is exceptional (always a work that Haitink did well) and the Ninth was very good too, although the solo quartet are more forgettable than memorable.
The Kletzki cycle on Supraphon is from the mid 1960's, a return to the grand old way of playing Beethoven. The Czech PO of course had a woodwind section then to rival even Karajan's Berlin PO and there are countless moments of illumination courtesy of them, helped by the fine recorded sound and the conductor's gift for achieving clarity of sound even at the most heavily scored climaxes. In the Ninth, the Czech PO Chorus sing with great fervour and extraordinary diction - you can practically write out Schiller's Ode to Joy as they sing it to you ! However, taken as a whole it was not a cycle that, for me at any rate, resonated in the memory.
Not surprisingly, the recorded sound on the Karajan release does not afford comparable clarity. It is also transferred at quite a low level, so you will need to crank up the volume a few notches more than you are used to. Once you have done this though, you are in for a treat. This live performance, the culmination of a Beethoven Cycle given by Karajan and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in 1955, as well as being the one-thousandth concert given by the Singverein of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde since it had been founded in 1858 (and of whom Karajan was "concert director" for life), crackles with electricity from the first bar to last. Listening to the solo quartet of Lisa Della Casa, Hildegard Rossel-Majdan, Waldemar Kmentt and Otto Edelmann, it is no wonder that Haitink's London quartet didn't stand a chance when I listened to them ! The recorded sound is exceptionally well balanced and clear; although the sound is mono, the ear quickly adjusts. The booklet though regurgitates the old chestnut that Karajan's best work was done in his Philharmonia days - best to look at the pictures here than read the words. One interesting interpretive point though is the almost Furtwanglerish acceleration to the finish line in the coda of the last movement; Karajan didn't do this on either his EMI recordings with the Vienna PO or Philharmonia made around this time. That aside, this performance is very highly recommended - personally I would play it before the live Berlin PO account from the opening of the Philharmonie; and you know how good that is !
