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Live in Berlin 1953-1969 - Karajan

Berliner Philharmoniker  BPHR 240291 (24 discs)

Stereo Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Irmgard Seefried, Gundula Janowitz, Elisabeth Grümmer (sopranos)
Christa Ludwig, Sieglinde Wagner, Marga Höffgen (altos)
Jess Thomas, Luigi Alva, Ernst Haefliger (tenors)
Walter Berry, Otto Wiener, Gottlob Frick (baritones)
Pierre Fournier (cello)
Lothar Koch (oboe)
Wilhelm Kempff, Jörg Demus, Christoph Eschenbach, Géza Anda, Glenn Gould (pianos)
Giusto Cappone (viola)
Wolfgang Schneiderhan (violin)
Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale
RIAS Kammerchor
Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan (conductor and piano)

All

Recording

Analogue recording

Works (38)

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Magnificat in D major, BWV 243 (after BWV 243a)
• Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106 BB 114
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 'Eroica'
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral'
• Richard Rodney Bennett: Aubade (1964)
• Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
• Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, WAB 104 'Romantic'
• Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C minor, WAB 108
• Claude Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, L 86
• Antonin Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 'From the New World'
• George Frideric Handel: Concerto Grosso in C minor, HWV 326 Op. 6 No. 8
• George Frideric Handel: Concerto Grosso in D major, HWV 323 Op. 6 No. 5
• Rolf Liebermann: Capriccio
• Gyorgy Ligeti: Atmosphères (1961)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto for 3 Pianos in F major, K. 242 'Lodron' 'No. 7'
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Divertimento No. 15 in B flat major, K. 287/271h
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 'Jupiter'
• Serge Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100
• Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, M. 57b Suite No. 2
• Arnold Schoenberg: Variations, Op. 31
• Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 8 (9) in C major, D 944 'Great'
• Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120
• Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82
• Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, TrV 176
• Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos, TrV 228 Es gibt ein Reich, wo alles rein ist
• Richard Strauss: Don Quixote, TrV 184
• Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, TrV 190
• Richard Strauss: Letzte Lieder (4), TrV 296
• Richard Strauss: Oboe Concerto in D major, TrV 292
• Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
• Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910, rev. 1913/19)
• Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90 Act I: Prelude
• Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90 Act III: Liebestod

Comments (1)

Comment by John Broggio - March 30, 2025 (1 of 1)

Very expensive. Very mixed bag sonically from "poor" to "acceptable". Artistically? Also very mixed (I will listen to everything at least once but very probably once only for the Bach & Handel!) but the final disc is both sonically acceptable and musically very rewarding; it makes one wish both Karajan and his record companies had been braver and made many more recordings from concert performances. Both the Schoenberg Variations and Tchaikovsky 5 have an electricity to them that far outweighs any sonic concerns and are much more musically exciting than his studio accounts. Audience reaction is completely excised (I'd have preferred to have been offered a seperate track so one could gauge the reaction). It does seem very promising indeed for any later periods now that (by the late 1960s) the radio recordings were good and reasonably well preserved. At no point do they threaten the sonic experience obtainable under studio conditions from EMÌ/DG etc from the same era (any orchestra, conductor - not just this pairing).

This is probably only recommendable for die-hard fans of Karajan. Releases from the 1970s onwards should be much more widely recommendable.