MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Not available in the USA

CD: AmazonUK
Download: Classicsonline

 

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Symphony no.1 in C minor, op.68 (1876) [45:37]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Leonore overture no.3, op.72a (1806) [14:47]
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Salome Dance of the seven veils (1905) [8:54]
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam/Herbert von Karajan
rec. Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 6-17 September 1943
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
NAXOS HISTORICAL 8.111298
[69:18]
 
Experience Classicsonline


Herbert von Karajan first conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra in January 1938 but, as Richard Osborne's magisterial study Herbert von Karajan: a life in music (London, 1998) observes, the conductor's response to what most would surely have considered a golden opportunity was somewhat surprising.

As General Music Director at Aachen and still, at that time, three months away from making his first guest performance with the Berlin Philharmonic, the self-confident young tyro – his brilliantined matinee-idol intensity well captured in the CD's cover photograph from the mid-1930s - might have been expected to see the chance to conduct the prestigious Amsterdam band as a major step forward in his burgeoning career. Already, though, Osborne speculates, Karajan's long term plans persuaded him that further association with the Concertgebouw – already raised to superstar status by Mengelberg over the previous 43 years – would have led him into an artistic cul-de-sac. What prestige, after all, was to be gained by a fruitless attempt to improve on something already widely perceived as perfect?

That 1938 Amsterdam concert included a well-received account of Brahms's first symphony, already something of a Karajan calling-card. Two months later he was to perform it again with Salzburg's Mozarteum Orchestra just as another native Austrian who had made his career in Germany – Adolf Hitler - was incorporating their shared homeland into the Third Reich. And it was that work that the conductor chose to record on his next encounter with the Concertgebouw at recording sessions held over 12 days in September 1943.

Of course, that five year interval had made all the difference in – and to - the world. In October 1938 Karajan had made a huge artistic breakthrough in Berlin with a Tristan und Isolde that had propelled him to stellar status. As the Berliner Zeitung am Mittag critic gushed, “To put it bluntly: we are faced with a prodigy. This man is the century's most sensational conductor. No one aged thirty in our time has achieved so objective or personal a triumph at such a level” [quoted in Osborne op. cit. p.114]. The Dutch orchestra, meanwhile, had suffered all the political and artistic indignities associated with their country's military defeat and consequent occupation, while Mengelberg's own collaborationist sympathies had done nothing to maintain the players' cohesion and morale.

Thus it is probably not too fanciful to detect more than a hint of artistic tension between Karajan (“at his haughtiest and most difficult” notes Osborne) and the Concertgebouw players, many of whom were no doubt extremely resentful at the presence on the podium of one of the occupying power's greatest musical icons. Such tension can, however, be a galvanising influence – and that seems to have been the case at these recording sessions. 

Certainly, anyone used only to the plush, well-upholstered Brahms recorded by Karajan later in his career will find some surprises here. To an extent, it has to be conceded, the recording quality per se makes a difference: the smooth, homogeneous sound that the technophile conductor and his engineers deliberately cultivated in his Deutsche Grammophon years is entirely absent. But, beyond the sheer sound, there is a notably attractive, fresh and lyrical approach that marks out this 1943 account as a particular delight. The beginning of the first movement provides an early case in point, with a comparatively slow and deliberate tempo combined with a remarkably open and airy orchestral texture: note how the timpanist's contribution is far more subtle than usual, giving a significant boost to the overall transparency of sound. Similarly, the adagio opening of the finale is especially carefully – and quite beautifully – phrased to emerge as far more than merely an introduction to the “big tune” - which itself is more carefully integrated into the music's overall structure than is sometimes the case when directed by more grandstanding conductors.

Throughout, in fact, Brahms's score is enhanced not by the melodramatic - but often highly effective - overemphasis to which Mengelberg was prone but by Karajan's careful control of dynamics and fine orchestral articulation. Sometimes, indeed, one senses, especially in the two central movements, that the players are almost in chamber music mode, so closely do they seem to be listening and responding to their peers. The result is a superficially low-key but nonetheless extremely satisfying interpretation that sounds remarkably close to twenty-first century musical tastes in spite of the initially rather sub-fusc sound.

The other two items on this disc were recorded during the same period and share some of the identical characteristics, without, perhaps, being quite so striking or memorable. The Beethoven is notable for its fire and drama. The booklet notes by the ever-enlightening Colin Anderson speak of its “whiff of greasepaint” and “off-the-leash impetuosity”. Meanwhile, Salome's notorious striptease is depicted with the requisite degree of musical hot-house eroticism, although Strauss's tour de force is the track that suffers most of all from the inevitable lack of aural sparkle on these somewhat recessed and dull-sounding recordings.

Nevertheless, while, in general, the initial impression of the sound quality may be a little disappointing, the ear soon adjusts to it.

This significant historical reissue can be recommended with confidence to those seeking a wider than usual perspective on the overall achievement of one of the last century's great conductors. At its bargain price it is irresistible.

Rob Maynard

 





 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.