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Music CD - Gundula Janowitz, Waldemar Kmentt, Hilde Rossel-Majdan: Ludwig van Beethoven: 9 Symphonien
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Music CD: Ludwig van Beethoven: 9 Symphonien
Artist: Gundula Janowitz, Waldemar Kmentt, Hilde Rossel-Majdan
List Price: $39.98
Our Price: $18.55
Your Save: $ 21.43 ( 54% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon 1963 / 2007
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Symphony No.1 in C major, Op. 21: 1. Adagio molto - Allegro con brio - L.V. Beethoven
2. Symphony No.1 in C major, Op. 21: 2. Andante cantabile con moto - L.V. Beethoven
3. Symphony No.1 in C major, Op. 21: 3. Menuetto. Allegro molto e vivace - L.V. Beethoven
4. Symphony No.1 in C major, Op. 21: 4. Adagio - Allegro molto e vivace - L.V. Beethoven
5. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op.55 Eroica: 1. Allegro con brio - L.V. Beethoven
6. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op.55 Eroica: 2. Marcia funebre. Adagio assai - L.V. Beethoven
7. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op.55 Eroica: 3. Scherzo. Allegro vivace - L.V. Beethoven
8. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op.55 Eroica: 4. Finale. Allegro molto - L.V. Beethoven
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028942903623
Format: Original recording reissued
Label: Deutsche Grammophon 1963 / 2007
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon 1963 / 2007
Number Of Discs: 5
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon 1963 / 2007
Release Date: 2007-06-05
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon 1963 / 2007
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Exciting and engrossing recordings
Comment: I have enjoyed listening to Karajan's 1963 set ever since I bought it on sale at the Record Hunter in New York in the late 1980's. I don't find the renditions unemotional as some do. The performances are fast and dramatic. To some the sixth is too fast, but the slower tempos we have become accustomed to are only received tradition just as phlegmatic renditions of Bruckner's symphonies were once the norm. The performances often have the drive more typical of early music versions of classic works, except the pieces are being played by a larger orchestra than would have been common before the twentieth century. They are powerful renditions but not heavy-handed or turgid.
As in his recordings for DG of the Brahms and Schumann symphonies, Karajan also shows his ability to shape passages. Long acquiantance with a score enables a conductor to do that. A distinct plus is the sound is excellent.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Okay! Good for a preference recording
Comment: It's very well played, well recorded, very standard for general audience or listeners. It's very Karajan. It's nice and pleasant to listen to. Nothing is deep, nothing is special, and overall, very boring and forgettable. I bought this set when I was still a music student. It was good when I needed to listen for study in a Beethoven Symphony class. But now I don't touch it any more.
Kleiber (Eric for #3, and Carlos for #4, #5, and #7), Walter, and Gardiner are among my favorite. They are all different but all wonderfully and amazingly memorable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Uneven Beethoven Cycle by Karajan
Comment: In a rehearsal of a Mahler symphony Leonard Bernstein asked to the members of Wiener Philharmoniker "I know you can play the notes but where is Mahler?". A similar question could be asked to Karajan after this cycle.In his way of doing Beethoven,Karajan chooses to eschew all spiritual depth and philosophical struggle Beethoven had both as a person and a composer in favour of straight-forward energy and power.
In the first two symphonies Karajan simply fails to catch the Mozartian grace and joy.He also lacks the vitality and flow Furtwaengler has in his Wiener Philharmoniker accounts with EMI.It is obvious he had original ideas about these pieces but to my tastes it simply does not work.
In Eroica,Karajan sticks to his plan and he is much more successful.He manages to create a magnificently powerful and energetic account of this masterpiece and he is very well supported by the beauty Berliner Philharmoniker extracts with their virtuoso playing.Still no spiritual depth of Furtwaengler,no emotional intensity of Böhm,no philosophical struggle of Klemperer but this account is the best case made for powerful Beethoven and probably no better case will ever be done.
Fourth Symphony along with 8th is the piece Karajan excels most.Karajan is very straight-forward and no-nonsense with these pieces it almost Carlos Kleiber like.Karajan seems to ask himself the question of "What is this work?"instead of "What can i do with this work?"So beautiful.Once again Karajan is favoured by gorgeous Berliners.
Fifth is also one of the highlights of this set.Without a doubt the most powerful and energetic of all Beethoven symphonies fifth is the most flexible piece to Karajan's way of Beethoven conducting.First movement is thrilling with is speed and furiosity and provoking with its passion and intensity.Adagio is fast but fortunately does not feel rushed.Scherzo finds beauty,mystery and drama at the same time.Excellent string playing here.Finale which Karajan takes without repeats carries this power and majestic aura until the very end without any decreases.I still favour the war-time Furtwaengler over this but still this is one of the greatest 5th symphony recordings ever.
However in the 6th symphony we return to the story of the first two. Karajan is unable to catch the climaxes.I blame the ridiculously fast speed.As an earlier reviewer so correctly stated Karajan's pastoral is describing impressions of nature from his Porsche.Böhm and Walter owns this symphony,Karajan is earth-bound by comparison.
Everything is so right in the 7th except of the beautiful Adagietto which is the section i care about most in this symphony.My problem is not about speed.I used to favour the slower the better appoach to this movement however after hearing Carlos Kleiber's incredible account with Wiener Philhamoniker it changed.Karajan's problem here is that the interpretation sounds empty.No dancing rhytmic flow like Abbado,no tragic and lyic beauty like Kleiber,no funeral climax like Furtwangler.It is as if Karajan could not care less about this movement and he had no ideas whatsoever about it at all.Other three movements are the same story with the 4th and 8th they are straight-forward and beautiful.
Some people tags this 9th symphony of Karajans as the definitive and the greatest account of this symphony and i desperately shake my head and ask "Where did this exaggeration and false interpretation of truth come from?"
To me this is the most problematic interpretation of this whole set.In the first movement Karajan takes such a fast tempo i wonder if he has another thing to take care of somewhere else.Second movement lacks the rhytmic flow and demonic aura.Third movement is rushed and in the fourth movement the combination of chorus and orchestra fails to create a wonderfully joyous climax and Karajan fails to create a heavenly sound at the very end of symphony as well as the final cries of "Götterfunken".
In sum to me this is not the best way to approach Beethoven.Even if you like Beethoven this way you might want to look elsewhere for 1st,2nd,6th and 9th symphonies.However if you are a fan of powerful but non-spiritual,energetic but emotionally cool Beethoven 3rd and 5th will move you in a way one will never forget for the rest of his/her life.Not to mention they are excellently played by the magnificent Berliner Philharmoniker.For more spiritual,emotional and Germanic Beethoven however Furtwaengler, Klemperer and Böhm are ways to go.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good set
Comment: Herbie von K. remains a divisive figure in the musical world, even after his death. It is fair to say that, currently, he is not flavour of the month. Even at the time of this set's first release in the early '60s, the critics criticised Karajan's "glossy and glamorous" reading of Beethoven, made largely possibly by having the best orchestra on the planet under his baton. It was, to use an Australian expression, all show and no go.
And yet...
Listen to that Fifth. Listen to how quietly Karajan takes the end of the third movement, and how he relentlessly builds the tension until the joyous explosion of the fourth movement. For me, this recording at least matches the famous (and justly praised) Kleiber recording.
Listen to the Ninth. Listen to the delightful touches, to the ting of the triangle in the Turkish March, to the way the piccolo rises out of the orchestra as the volume builds towards the great string run that leads to the final appearance of the famous "Ode to Joy" chorus. And just listen to those strings sing and the way the double basses thunder along underneath it all. If I had to take one Ninth to my desert island, it would be this one.
There are things that are not so good of course. In the Pastoral, in the first movement "feelings of joy on arriving in the country", one can only assume that Karajan is sampling the joys in his Porsche. However, whoever gets a complete set of Beethoven symphonies right, whatever "right" means? Not Karajan, but not anyone else either. In my opinion, this is marvellous music making, in which the good things handily outnumber the bad, and at this price it is irresistible - which is, of course, why I didn't.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Those who ignore repeats should be taken outside and shot
Comment: Karajan shows no respect for the balance of Beethoven's score. Overall, there is little here to laud or hate......a bonus second star for spectacular execution by the Berlin Phil, without actually playing any music. Glossy, zero rubato, zero sforzati, continuous mezzo forte.
In 20 years, music notation software with masterful samples will sound exactly like this: the most perfect and beautiful sounds a computer can generate. These performances are soulless.
Give me Bernstein/VPO or Solti/Chicago any day over this rubbish.
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Editorial Reviews:
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By general consensus, Herbert von Karajan's first (1963) Beethoven cycle for Deutsche Grammophon is the best of the four (!) that he recorded. The Berlin Philharmonic was in top form, and they had not yet made an artistic fetish out of the bland smoothness that typified the conductor's later recordings of this music (and just about everything else). Karajan's squeaky clean, emotionally cool Beethoven will always be something of an acquired taste, but this set makes the best possible case for it. --David Hurwitz
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