“It is entitled ‘A Hero’s Life,’ and while it has no funeral march, it does have lots of horns, horns being quite the thing to express heroism. Thanks to the healthy country air, my sketch has progressed well.” With these words Richard Strauss evoked the connections between his symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”. A great connoisseur of Strauss’s oeuvre, Herbert von Karajan tackled the piece in 1985 as part of a series including Don Quixote, Thus spoke Zarathustra, and Death and Transfiguration. The Austrian maestro’s authority and mastery express themselves with éclat in this performance featuring his trusted artistic collaborators, the musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Eine Alpensinfonie
Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony is closely connected with the Berliner Philharmoniker and its famous artistic director, the recording-technology-afficianado Herbert von Karajan. In 1981, their version of Strauss’s symphonic poem became one of the first works ever recorded on CD, and was then filmed two years later by Karajan’s production company Telemondial. Particularly remarkable for its rich orchestration, the Alpine Symphony is one of Strauss’s most ambitious compositions, and describes a day of mountain-climbing in which, as the writer Boris Vian put it, “more than anywhere else, the view and the heart become one”.
Karajan conducts Famous Overtures
The collaboration between Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker was one of the most productive and influential in the history of music recording. Famous during his life for having re-recorded his emblematic repertoire (Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner) as a sort of definitive final artistic testament, the Austrian conductor also dedicated certain programs and recordings to fragments of works, all the while preserving pieces’ integrity and the rigor of his musical direction. This concert from 1985 is an example of his subtle and intelligent approach, combining overtures by Beethoven and Brahms into a single, illuminating program.
Karajan conducts Debussy & Ravel
Celebrated for his intimate knowledge of the symphonic contributions of German Romanticism’s great masters, Herbert von Karajan also explored the masterpieces of French composers with the Berliner Philharmoniker in great detail. His almost-obsessive quest for sonic perfection was particularly intriguing when applied to French Impressionism, like the classic works featured here. Debussy’s La Mer depicts the magnificent land- and seascapes associated with the ocean and draws inspiration from the visual artwork of Turner and Monet, and the Suite No.2 from Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé paints its subjects so clearly that the listener can almost see them. It was the composer himself who spoke of a “choreographic symphony” bringing the love story of the shepherd and his lover to life.
Jubilee Concert – 100 Years Berliner Philharmoniker
Who better than Herbert von Karajan, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s only conductor-for-life, to celebrate the 100th anniversary in 1982 of the orchestra’s founding? In this exceptional concert, the famous Austrian maestro conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”, whose lively revolutionary character that perfectly suits the orchestra’s vast interpretive powers and corresponds well with the mood for the celebration of the founding of the trail-blazing orchestra a century before.
Beethoven Cycle – Symphony No. 2
Experience the captivating musical partnership of the Berliner Philharmoniker under Herbert von Karajan in this exceptional performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. Relatively obscure because of the incredible legacy of the symphonies that followed it, the Second was composed around the time when Beethoven learned that the deafness beginning to envelope him could never be cured… a dark moment captured in his Heiligenstadt Testament, an emotional letter written to his brothers in which he confided his desperation and suicidal thoughts. Dedicated to his patron, the former Mozart student Karl Lichnowsky, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 is shaped by the symphonic tradition founded by Mozart, whose works the younger composer greatly admired. The Second marks the end of a musical age and the dawning of a new epoque for the symphonic genre, with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” coming just around the corner…
Beethoven Cycle – Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”
The great Beethoven specialist Herbert von Karajan leads the Berliner Philharmoniker in a once-in-a-lifetime interpretation of Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 3. A great admirer of the young French Republic’s ideal of liberty at the turn of the 19th century, the composer initially dedicated what was called the “Bonaparte” Symphony to the diminutive French general. Unfortunately, Beethoven’s anger and disappointment at learning that the liberator had turned into an authoritarian emperor—as Victor Hugo would put it, “the Napoleon was starting to show behind the Bonaparte” (i.e. the tyrant was beginning to show through the hero)—led him to re-baptize the symphony as the “Eroica” and dedicate it to his patron, the Prince Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz. The energy of Beethoven’s heroic gesture is incarnated in a work that intrepidly breaks with its symphonic predecessors.
Beethoven Cycle – Symphony No. 4
Celebrated for his interpretations of Beethoven’s oeuvre, the great conductor Herbert von Karajan conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in the composer’s Fourth Symphony. When Beethoven visited the summer residence of the famed Viennese musical patron Prince Lichnowsky, the Count Franz von Oppersdorff met the composer and fell under the spell of his Second Symphony. He offered Beethoven a considerable sum of money to compose a new symphony in the same joyous mood as the Second, leading to the genesis of the Symphony No. 4, which in turn was dedicated to Oppersdorff himself.
Beethoven Cycle – Symphony No. 5
“It’s very big, absolutely crazy!” cried Goethe when he heard Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The conductor Herbert von Karajan—a true connoisseur of Beethoven’s work—and the Berliner Philharmoniker present here an exceptional interpretation of the Symphony No. 5. Despite suffering from worsening deafness at the time of the masterpiece’s composition, Beethoven persevered and would succesfully complete his project of a large orchestral work defined by four fateful notes… as he would later explain this particular musical obsession, “this is the way that destiny knocks at the door”!
Beethoven Cycle – Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral”
In 1805, Beethoven wrote to a dear friend in anticipation of a visit to the countryside about “how delighted I shall be to ramble for a while through bushes, woods, under trees, through grass, and around rocks! No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear.” Just three years later, his magnificent homage to nature, the celebrated Symphony No. 6, received its premiere. Baptised as the “Pastoral” Symphony by Beethoven himself, the work comes to life in this brilliant interpretation by the great Maestro Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker.