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.
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”.
Ein Heldenleben
“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.
Karajan conducts Dvorak 9
Invited by the progressive American arts patron Jeannette Thurber to become director of the naissant National Conservatory of Music of America in New York in October of 1892, Dvorak was initially hesitant to cross the ocean to accept her offer. Attached to his native country and boosted by his growing success on the European continent, his financial struggle to support his family of six children led him to say yes. His subsequent voyage would become the point of departure for one of the world’s most beloved symphonic works: his Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”, which combines traditional slavic folk music with the new American musical horizons he encountered. Karajan and the Wiener Philharmoniker honor the Czech composer’s magnificent chef-d’œuvre with this captivating performance.
Karajan conducts Dvorak 8
“You advise me to write small pieces but I find this difficult… how can I do this when no theme for a melody or work for piano comes to me? At the moment, my mind is full of great ideas — I will follow the will of God”. These words from Dvorak to his publisher Simrock (who wanted the composer to produce shorter, easier-to-sell works) show his determination regarding the writing of his symphonies. Premiered February 2, 1890 in Prague, the Eighth Symphony, optimistic and inspired by traditional music, was very well received by its audience. The maestro Herbert von Karajan and the Wiener Philharmoniker present a masterful interpretation in this 1985 concert in the Austrian capital.
Don Quixote
Enter the extravagant universe of Cervantes’s Don Quixote in Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Herbert von Karajan, legendary personality of the 20th-century European musical scene. Strauss gives musical life to some of the novel’s most famous episodes, including the battle with the sheep, the windmills, and the encounter with Dulcinea. Having already recorded the work with Pierre Fournier and Rostropovich, in this version Karajan approaches an even greater level of perfection with the young cello virtuoso Antonio Meneses, winner of the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition.
Karajan conducts Brahms 2
“He was obsessed with the beauty of sound. He strove for a round and subtle sound, both precise and sparkling. It is bliss that we hear in the numerous recordings he made with the Berliner Philharmoniker.” It was the sociologist Dr. Françoise Davoine gave this admirative description of the celebrated maestro Herbert von Karajan’s fruitful collaboration with the prestigious Berlin orchestra. Karajan and the Philharmoniker’s common quest for the perfect sound is brilliantly expressed in this powerful interpretation of Brahms’s Second Symphony.
Karajan conducts Brahms 1
Before he became a world-famous conductor, Herbert von Karajan had originally wanted to be a pianist. It was at the age of 20 that he gave up the piano, a choice that would play a determining role in his musical career: by the time he was 21 years old, he had already begun conducting operas! It is easy to imagine that his attachment to the piano gave Karajan a particular affinity for the music of the great late 19th century conductor and concert-pianist Johannes Brahms. Karajan gave Brahms’s First Symphony—composed over the course of 20 years and premiered in 1876 in Karlsruhe— a masterful interpretation in this concert featuring the brilliant Berliner Philharmoniker.
Ein deutsches Requiem
“Rather than a German Requiem, I should have called it a ‘human requiem’.” Brahms’s words reveal much about the universal character of his celebrated work. The Wiener Philharmoniker under the baton of the great Herbert von Karajan presents a performance of appropriate subtlety and timelessness. Brahms’s Requiem is different from the traditional mass for the dead in numerous ways: the words are in German and not in Latin, and the texts—drawn from Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible—emphasize life’s peaceful conclusion rather than making entreaties on behalf of deceased souls facing the Final Judgement. An incredibly hopeful Requiem whose all-inclusive message resonates through to the present day.
Pictures at an Exhibition
Experience Mussorgsky’s celebrated Pictures at an Exhibition conducted by the exceptional Herbert von Karajan leading the Berliner Philharmoniker. This world-famous work was born of sad circumstances: in 1873, the composer’s friend, the painter Victor Hartmann, died suddenly from an aneurysm at 39 years old. Shocked, Mussorgsky organized an exhibition of Hartmann’s works at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. While the visitors viewed the artwork, the idea came to Mussorgsky to celebrate his friend in music: “sounds and ideas hung in the air, I am gulping and overeating, and can barely manage to scribble them on paper.” Composed in just a few weeks, the piece (originally for piano) would be arranged and transcribed many times before Maurice Ravel’s 1922 orchestration, which is today the most popular.