Beethoven: Complete Symphonies- BPO/Karajan

On Beethoven complete symphonies:


Beethoven Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 2; Symphony No. 3; Symphony No. 4; Symphony No. 5; Symphony No. 6; Symphony No. 7; Symphony No. 8; Symphony No. 9Gundula Janowitz (soprano), Hilde Rössl-Majdan (alto), Waldemar Kmentt (tenor), Walter Berry (bass) Vienna Singverein, Berlin PO/Herbert von Karajan
Label: DG Complete Beethoven Edition
Cat No: 453 701-2 ADD 1963
Run Time: 331:54 (5 discs)
Performance: ****
Sound: ***

One may feel that DG missed a golden opportunity here to offer a complete cycle featuring conductors such as Böhm, Jochum, Carlos Kleiber and Gardiner. Nonetheless, faced with a straight choice between their three Karajan cycles, I would probably opt for these Sixties performances. Current tastes may favour smaller-sized orchestral forces which place the first and second violins on opposite sides, a greater equality between the wind and string sections and a more consistent observation of all Beethoven’s repeat marks, but Karajan’s beautifully manicured interpretations compel admiration, not least for the outstanding playing of the Berlin Philharmonic. Erik Levi


Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (Karajan Gold) Berlin PO/Herbert von Karajan
Label: DG
Cat No: 439 000-2 DDD
Run Time: (20 discs, also available separately, 439 001/20-2)


Notionally to mark the 85th anniversary of Karajan’s birth, Deutsche Grammophon has re-released 20 CDs under the banner of Karajan Gold, available together or individually (also on DCCs), and consisting of the Eighties recordings of the conductor’s central orchestral repertory. Many of these were widely felt to be less than satisfactory when originally issued, especially the Beethoven symphonies, with an opaque and reverberative sound that marred the climaxes, and DG seem to have been prompted into developing a new remastering process, the grandly named ‘Original-Image Bit-Processing’. The results are indeed fairly impressive, removing the shrillness from the strings and clarifying the orchestral texture, in particular rendering the woodwind warm and immediate, so that now these recordings can stand direct comparison with their earlier counterparts. Those who found the 1977 Beethoven cycle oppressively slick might be more sympathetic to these accounts, recorded relatively quickly and in long takes: there is an unexpected spontaneity here, and the seamless Karajan sound is relaxed to the extent of allowing greater local detail and dynamic contrast, while (of course) retaining a magisterial rhythmic and structural control. Particularly fine are the intensely felt Eroica (439 002-2), coupled with the Egmont Overture, and an expansively Romantic Eighth (439 005-2), with the Fidelio and Leonora No. 3 overtures and a monumental Coriolan (Performances ***** Sound *****). The First and Second (439 001-2) are somewhat patchy, however, and the soloists in the Ninth (439 006-2) don’t quite match those in either the 1962 or 1977 DG versions (Performances **** Sound *****).