Berliner Philharmoniker and Herbert von Karajan: 1953–1969 Live in Berlin review
Some names in the history of performance, thanks to a great recorded legacy, leave a mark, perceptible even to those who come decades later. The soprano Maria Callas is one. Herbert von Karajan, Austrian principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1956 to 1989, is another. It's hard to verify whether he sold the 200m records estimated, but his studio recordings, edited to near perfection, were key to his own sense of posterity.
Possessed of an enigmatic personality, from a lifestyle as racy (sailing, skiing, Porsches) as it was wholesome (daily yoga), this controversialist applied his analytical ear to the Berlin Philharmonic, building its famously rich, polished sound. Next week, the orchestra's own label will release its second extensive historical edition (following a 2022 box set of recordings by Karajan's predecessor, Wilhelm Fürtwangler), with mostly previously unreleased radio recordings, digitised in high resolution.
The pleasure of this 24-disc hybrid CD/SACD set, from sampled listening, is the chance to hear risk, imperfection and the adventure of live recording. Repertoire includes the expected European mainstream – Mozart, Beethoven (including three performances of the Symphony No 9), Schubert, Bruckner, Brahms – as well as the less expected: Vaughan Williams (Tallis Fantasia), Ligeti (Atmosphères) and Richard Rodney Bennett (Aubade). Singers Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Gundula Janowitz and pianist Glenn Gould are among the soloists.
This treasury, which is accompanied by a 128-page book, offers a glimpse of musical history, recorded on Rundfunk im Amerikanischen Sektor (RIAS) and Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) in the midst of the cold war.
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