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23.7.19

On ClassicsToday: Karajan's best Beethoven or the best Karajan-Beethoven? (DG)

Karajan’s 1970s Beethoven In Blu-ray Audio: A Controversial Set Revisited

Review by: Jens F. Laurson
BEETHOVEN_Symphonies_Berlin-Philharmonic_70s_Karajan_DG_Blu-ray_ClassicsToday_jens-f-laurson_classical-critic

Artistic Quality: ?

Sound Quality: ?

Herbert von Karajan was once the high-holy name in classical music. So much so it was inevitable that the historical pendulum would swing the other way. And so he became something of an outcast among the self-declared cognoscenti. When customers asked for Karajan at the Tower Records store I worked at, we subtly sneered: “Karajan in whichever-composer? Pooh-pooh. Tut-tut!” His seminal 1960s Beethoven cycle might have been given a grudging exemption, ditto a bit of late Bruckner and an opera or two. But not a whole lot else. And certainly not the later Beethoven recordings.. [continue reading]





See also: The Beethoven Symphonies, A Survey of Complete* Recordings

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