Karajan in Moscow

Sunday, December 28th 2008

MELCD 1001512

Karajan in Moscow Vol.1

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
1 “Coriolan”, Overture to Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s Tragedy, Op. 62 8.50
Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op. 67:
2 I. Allegro con brio 7.13
3 II. Andante con moto 9.31
4 III. Allegro 4.51
5 IV. Allegro 9.02

Symphony No.6 in F major, Op. 68 (“Pastoral”):
6 I. Allegro ma non troppo 8.44
7 II. Andante molto moto 10.52
8 III. Allegro 3.00
9 IV. Allegro 3.14
10 V. Allegretto 8.33

Total time: 73.55

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
HERBERT VON KARAJAN, conductor

Great Hall of the Moscow conservatory, 28.05.1969
Sound engineer – I.Veprintsev

MELCD 1001513
Karajan in Moscow Vol.2

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046
1 (Allegro) 4.00
2 Adagio 4.32
3 Allegro 4.28
4 Menuetto. Trio I. Polacca. Trio II. 9.02

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975)
Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op.93
5 I. Moderato 23.13
6 II. Allegro 4.08
7 III. Allegretto12.09
8 IV. Andante – Allegro 13.51

Total playing time: 75.29

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
HERBERT VON KARAJAN, conductor

Great Hall of the Moscow conservatory, 29.05.1969
Sound engineer – I. Veprintsev

Herbert von Karajan, whose hundredth anniversary is being marked this year, is one of the most important
conductors of the past century and, most likely, presents himself as one of the brightest symbols of the recently departed epoch.
Similarly to an avant-garde composer, who gave attention to the smallest touch of sound, Karajan worked on the world-famous symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner as well as Richard Strauss’ symphonic poems, presenting them as enticing musical narrations, glittering with brilliant, albeit somewhat cold colors.
Just as Zeffirelli became one of the leaders of the renewal of opera staging, so his partner, the musical
director of performances, Herbert von Karajan, assumed the leading positions in the renewal of the principles of orchestral conducting.
Many recordings, made from Karajan’s concerts with various orchestras, are still waiting for their hour of dissemination. In honor of the outstanding conductor’s centennial anniversary, the “Melodiya” company
is rereleasing recordings made during Karajan’s tour of Moscow 1968. This was Karajan’s third visit to the USSR during the course of five years.

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MELCD 1001514（2CDs）

Karajan in Moscow Vol.3

CD 1
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791)
Divertimento No. 17 in D Major, K.334 (1 - 5)
Total playing time: 36.09

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
HERBERT VON KARAJAN, conductor

Great Hall of the Moscow conservatory, 30.05.1969
Sound engineer – I. Veprintsev
Re-mastering – M. Pilipov

CD 2
RICHARD STRAUSS (1864–1949)
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 (1 - 6)
Total playing time: 47.45

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
HERBERT VON KARAJAN, conductor

Great Hall of the Moscow conservatory, 30.05.1969
Sound engineer – I. Veprintsev

Mozart’s Divertimento could be very well characterized by the phrase from one of the responses to Karajan’s concerts – that in his art what must be noticed was “first of all a strict type of academicism, a veneration and meticulous approach to the composer’s text and, at the same time, a sense of the living music”. Indeed, Karajan’s Mozart, especially in a musical theater setting, generates an unforgettable sensation of an almost childlike clarity, lightness and radiance. At the same time one cannot but notice that the nature itself of the genre of the divertimento, moreover, one of the largest and the most pronounced
in Mozart’s heritage, does not presuppose any exceptional type of work on gathering together the movements of such a diverse character, nor to worry about an integrity of a through musical “plot”. This “addition of intrigue” and “enhancement of romantic qualities” of the repertoire from the Classical period was always untypical of Karajan. Thus, just like in the case of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto, the performance turned out to be, according to the critics, “formal and not remarkable in any way”.
Even harsher was the critics’ evaluation of the performance of Richard Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben”, likewise written in the form of a peculiar and rather motley divertimento, connected integrally by its single image themes.