HvK best at ... ?

[verismissimo]

I've recently been given the 88 CD complete orchestral EMI recordings made by Karajan. It's not something I would have invested in myself, but I'm enjoying it greatly. The main orchestras are the VPO, then the newly-formed Philharmonia, and the later recordings are mostly BPO. They cover some 40 years from the late 1940s.

But what was he best at?

For my money, his Johann Strauss II is quite exceptional …

[Richard Barrett]

But what was he best at?

In my humble opinion, Wagner.

[Bryn]

Honegger.

[Master Jacques]

Wagner and Richard Strauss, doubtless.

I am just revisiting his DG Ring, and am amazed at (a) how lyrical, light and beautiful it is; and (b) how much of HvK's special quality here I missed back in the 1970s, when as a schoolboy I first heard these four recordings and thought they were mince, after Solti!

[verismissimo]

Wagner and Richard Strauss, doubtless.

I am just revisiting his DG Ring, and am amazed at (a) how lyrical, light and beautiful it is; and (b) how much of HvK's special quality here I missed back in the 1970s, when as a schoolboy I first heard these four recordings and thought they were mince, after Solti!

Yes and yes to Wagner and R Strauss. I've lived with HvK in both for several decades and Master Jacques expresses exactly what he brings to them (and to J Strauss, of course) - lyricism, lightness and beauty. The hallmarks of his musicianship?

No Honegger spotted in this set.

[jayne lee wilson]

Even though I now tend to prefer faster, more volatile, smaller-scale Bruckner, I would still name Karajan as one of the great Bruckner conductors.
He's hardly ever as grandiose or monumental as the tedious critical clichés wearily suggest, inclined more to the Austrian-Melodic, pastoral or alpine-pastoral evocations. The sound-palette in the first three symphonies can be surprisingly spare.

The earlier Berlin Sibelius (4-7, DG) remains a classic as well, and the Honegger of course. That gorgeous Debussy Pelleas... I think I had an HvK favourites list on a thread here somewhere...

Just found it.....

Stravinsky Symphonies/Concerto in D
Ravel Anthology
Franck D Minor Symphony
Schoenberg/Berg/Webern
Honegger 2/3
Debussy Pelleas
Prokofiev 5
Bruckner 2

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yup - the Late Romantics were his especially good recordings; Wagner (Tristan and both Meistersinger sets in that EMI box?), R Strauss, Sibelius. IIRC, the only Bruckner in that EMI box is the Eighth, which isn't his best recording of that piece (or does it also include the later Stereo Fourth and Seventh? They were lovely.) The Beethoven cycle from that box is pretty fine,and there's the "perhaps-matched-but-never-supassed" Brahms Requiem with the VPO (a very good recording from 1976, too, with Janowitz). A couple of very good, "old style" Missas Solemnis, too. His best Symphonie Fantastique is with the Philharmonia, too - and just listen to that sound and see if you can believe it's MONO (no wonder Legge was initially a Stereo-sceptic if he could get results as good as this).

And Balakirev, Roussel, Hindemith, RVW, & Britten - repertoire he never returned to (although IIRC, Richard Osborne mentioned that he had the Roussel score ordered to have another look for a future recording just before he died.)

Very little that's not worth hearing in that box - I think he was an exceptionally good Musician.

[Petrushka]

It's easy to forget, or take for granted, the huge breadth of Karajan's repertoire even in those early EMI days. I have all of Karajan's orchestral recordings and there is barely a dud among them. In the EMI collection you refer to I'd single out his Philharmonia Sibelius, his Tchaikovsky, his Wagner, his Johann Strauss - those 1940's/50's discs with the VPO! - and so much else. His first Beethoven cycle with the Philharmonia is still a thing of wonder.

The two composers in which he excelled above all others were, in my opinion, Bruckner and Richard Strauss. It is 40 years ago this month since I saw Karajan for the only time in Bruckner 8 with the BPO in London. Greatest concert of my life!

I sigh when BaL either dismisses (with the usual cliches) or completely ignores his recordings. Many of them are still 'winners' in my book and always will be.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh! And Verdi's Falstaff and (if you like that sort if thing) Puccini's Butterfly with Callas. Mozart Horn Concertos with Denis Brain.

Are the Opera recordings included in that box? "88CDs" suggests not.

[Master Jacques]

Even though I now tend to prefer faster, more volatile, smaller-scale Bruckner, I would still name Karajan as one of the great Bruckner conductors. He's hardly ever as grandiose or monumental as the tedious critical clichés wearily suggest, inclined more to the Austrian-Melodic, pastoral or alpine-pastoral evocations. The sound-palette in the first three symphonies can be surprisingly spare.

Hear, hear! His Bruckner is marvellously melodic and refreshing, if one's in the right mood, and I would always want it ready to hand.

[jayne lee wilson]

How tantalising for a Roussel-obsessive to hear that he considered returning to the 4th...!.. I never knew that......the Philharmonia 1949 one is good, but - more from the pioneer point of view. It has been surpassed by various later readings.

[vinteuil]

Oh! And Verdi's Falstaff and (if you like that sort if thing) Puccini's Butterfly with Callas. Mozart Horn Concertos with Denis Brain.

Are the Opera recordings included in that box? "88CDs" suggests not.

vol 1 is the Orchestral recordings :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karajan-Complete-EMI-Recordings-Vol/dp/B000ZBPQEO

... the opera recordings are in vol 2 :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karajan-Complete-EMI-Recordings-Vol/dp/B000ZBPQEE

.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So, when verism gets round to buying Volume 2, I've given him a head start!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - the Roussel has an "edge-of-seats" danger about it that later recordings have bettered - and it was possibly a little over-enthusiastic to put it amongst "Karajan at his best". But I'd still rather listen to it than to Dutoit's much "safer" read-through.

[gradus]

A very fine musician and conductor of opera and almost everything else but I don't warm to him for reasons that don't need restating but I entirely understand that others will differ with me over this.