1972 London Live recordings - two nights

[mahalo]

The above which was wanted by a lot of Karajan enthusiasts
has just been released here in Japan.
I have listened to the two CDs fully and posted a blog article.
Please refer to it if you are interested.

tinyurl.com/n72mvw

Note: Translation by Google may not be kind enough to help your
reading.

[lee]

Hi Mahalo

Thank you for your comments.

I have posted my own below !

lee

[lee]

I think that it was asked somewhere in the Forum if anything was going to happen to remember the 20th anniversary of Karajan’s death this year, to which the logical answer would be to assume, probably not much, after all the activities of the Centenary Year in 2008. However, much to my delight, and to their credit, Testament appear to be marking the anniversary with two CDs issued this month.

For me, the highlight of the Centenary Year releases were Testament’s issues of Karajan’s London concerts in 1985 and 1988 and not for the obvious reason (I was there on both occasions!). You see, in my opinion, listening to the music making on this pair of CDs nearly 20 years after my younger, inevitably less wise, self first heard them, reveals two concerts touched by the mantle of greatness. The 1985 concert was special as it was Karajan’s first visit to London for four years, during which time he and the Berlin PO had almost split up because of the row over Sabine Meyer and Karajan’s own health had deteriorated markedly from the almost superhuman, skiing, mountaineering etc.. hero who had previously stood in front of the orchestra. Indeed, as this crippled old man dragged himself through the orchestra and onto the podium, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the hall that night wondering if this may be the last time he conducted. That the second half of the concert was devoted to Ein Heldenleben seemed most appropriate and indeed we were treated to a most remarkable performance – in particular, listen to the string playing during the close if the work (The Hero’s withdrawal from the world and fulfilment), wonderfully glowing and radiant and incredibly moving. Almost unbelievably, over three years later Karajan and his Berliners were back (having also visited in 1987 too), this time to give what would be their final London appearance together. This is an important historical document too, for it was the last time Karajan conducted Brahms First Symphony, the symphony that he had performed more than any other during his long career. It is an immense performance, the final pages white hot with adrenaline pumping and indeed, it needed to be, for it was preceded on disc and in concert by an astonishing performance of Verklarte Nacht. Listening to the Schoenberg on CD all these years later I am reminded of a comment made by Fergus McWilliam, a horn player who joined the Berlin PO in 1984. He and his wife first heard the orchestra at the 1972 Edinburgh Festival, where Stravinsky’s Apollo and Brahms’s Second Symphony were on the programme. Talking to Richard Osborne, he would say:

“After the Stravinsky, we wanted to leave. It was so beautiful, we couldn’t comprehend that we would want to listen to the Brahms. Staying was going to leave us with too cluttered an experience: we wanted to keep the memory of the Stravinsky pure and perfect in its own right. We stayed, of course…”

With this in mind, whenever I listen to this glorious, almost Tristanesque performance of Verklarte Nacht, I too fall under the same spell.

And so now Testament have issued another pair of CDs, again from live concerts in London’s Royal Festival Hall, but this time from 1972. The first disc again features Ein Heldenleben which was almost coupled once more with Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony (as in 1985), but due to the RFH Management insisting on no clashes of repertoire with other orchestras that season, Beethoven’s Pastoral was played in the first half instead. Now, there are many people who don’t like Karajan’s way with Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, a point tacitly acknowledged by Richard Osborne in the disc’s liner notes with:

“…since Karajan, unlike Klemperer or Bruno Walter, placed no great emphasis on the religious aspects of Beethoven’s nature worship, he did run the risk of producing a reading that might appear spiritually ‘disengaged’”

To be fair, there are no real surprises to be had in this superbly played rendition of the Pastoral – it is very similar to the 1967 filmed version (DG DVD), although there are moments of almost unsurpassable golden beauty from the orchestra. Likewise, the Heldenleben resembles the 1974 recording made a couple of years later, which for me contains the finest battle scene in all of Karajan’s three commercial recordings of the work, something which is replicated thrillingly in this performance too. Unlike the EMI recording though, on this occasion Michel Schwalbe led the orchestra and of course played the violin solos; for me, Schwalbe was the finest of all Karajan’s concertmasters and this is evidenced here in a marvellous portrayal of Strauss’s wife Pauline (incredible to think that Schwalbe, Brandis and Spierer, Karajan’s other concertmasters, were all part of the orchestra at the same time during this period). In 1985, it was Spierer who led the orchestra, and if his portrayal isn’t quite on the same exalted level, for me the rest of the performance is slightly better than in 1972; maybe it was the timing, as described above, the fractionally slower tempos (which I had initially thought were to try and accommodate the notoriously poor RFH acoustics, a theory debunked by the 1972 performance), I don’t know, but there is a deep vein of melancholy that runs through the second half of the later performance that is most affecting. They say that the great is the enemy of the good and on this occasion I concur; the 1972 performance is very good; its just the 1985 is great.

No such comparisons need preoccupy us with the previous night’s concert though, which coupled Mozart’s Divertimento No 15 with Stravinsky’s Rite. Whilst I’m not the greatest fan of Mozart’s Divertimenti, it difficult to imagine a more charming performance of the K287 that the one preserved on this disc. The Stravinsky that follows though, I have to say, is stunningly played, a point noted by newspaper reviews at the time, such as this comment from the Daily Telegraph:

“The overwhelming experience was of a precision, a range of colour and of dynamics, wholly suited to the music. Karajan was able to give even the thickest of textures a vibrant clarity and the split-second timing and sureness of attack in the Dance of the Earth and the Glorification of the Chosen One, showed not only the players skill but their extraordinary intimate knowledge of the work.”

The piece was played that season (along with Apollo) as a tribute to Stravinsky who had died the previous year. Karajan’s first recording of Rite had been on the receiving end of some rather barbed comments from the composer himself and so he had left the piece alone for a number of years. Richard Osborne in his liner notes suggests that this performance marked the beginning of a renewed association with the work that culminated in the second recording made in 1977 and sums it up as “work in progress”. There is an element of truth in this; search hard and you will find a live 1978 Rite performance with Karajan and the Berliners from the Lucerne Festival in 1978 (Palexa, coupled with Beethoven’s 7th Symphony), which whilst being near-identical in conception to the London performance, is more abandoned, even at the expense of being slightly less better played; perhaps this was the quality that Karajan was looking for. Which isn’t to say this Testament release is disappointing, indeed the closing section of part 1 builds up a tremendous head of steam; rather it is to emphasise that Karajan was continuously raising his sights and goals, even if what he had previously achieved was pretty extraordinary in itself already.

Overall, the sound on these two new releases is very fine (remarkably so in the Stravinsky), testimony to the marvellous skills of the BBC engineers of that time; occasionally the balance tips in favour of the brass, but this is always an occupational hazard when the microphones are above the orchestra in the concert hall since the brass are inevitably “higher up”, but nothing serious. I guess most people reading this will buy these discs anyway, but if I may be so bold, I would suggest that the 1980’s concerts would be the mandatory acquisitions, with the 1970’s a glorious supplement. For me, having all four, it is an embarrassment of riches !

lee

[john]

Hi Lee

Are you getting commission from Testament? or did you get over excited at Saturdays football results.

Seriously, your comments are are very welcome and any one who attended any of the concerts will be very excited by these releases.

John

[lee]

Hi John

Well the accusation of being a little over-excited about the weekend's football results is a bit rich coming from a fan of North London's "other" football club !!! (excellent result too, if I may say).

On a serious note, it is nice to see a company making an effort to make available previously unreleased Karajan material, so kudos to Testament. That said, assuming that they had available to them the whole of BBC's archive to choose from, I was a little surprised at the selection on this occasion - what do you think ?

With best regards, Lee

[john]

Hi Lee

John Hunt informs me that The BPO are happy for Testament to release recordings of 'live' concerts providing they are with other conductors as well as Karajan.

Unfortunately not all of the HVK London concerts were broadcast.
For instance the 1987 Brahms 2nd & 4th, the 1977 Mahler 6th & Beethoven 5th & 6th.

This leaves only the 1981 Bruckner 5th and the Oxford concert.

The 1979 Bruckner 8th & Zarathustra concerts were broadcast by Capital Radio for some obscure reason.

If we are lucky we may get the 1973 Beethoven 5th & 4th from the Albert Hall.

John Hunt thinks that some of the Paris broadcasts may be released by Testament but we will have to wait and see.

Best regards

John

[charlesb]

I checked the concert programme for the 1981 Bruckner 5 today and this was broadcast by Capital Radio, not the BBC, so Testament will not be able to release it (unless they make a separate contract with Capital).

John, you seem to have forgotten the 1976 concert, but as it includes another Heldenleben perhaps Testament would not want to release it. A pity, as the first half of the concert was an exhilarating Beethoven 8th Symphony.

Also, why should Testament not release some of the 1960's London concerts? If we are lucky, the BBC may even have stereo tapes. The Testament release of Giulini's 1963 Verdi Requiem from the Festival Hall is in stereo, so potentially all live recordings by the BBC since then are in stereo.

[john]

Charles

Yes, you are correct I had forgotten about the the 1976 which is amazing as it was the first Karajan concert I attended, I slept outside the Festival Hall in the freezing cold all night.

I must be getting old as I could not recall that the Bruckner 5th was broadcast by Capital Radio.

Fortunately I have the original cassette recordings of these concerts on CD but the professional re-masters would be more than wellcome.

Best regards

John

John