HvK best at ... ?

[Petrushka]

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

.

I have the 13 boxes in the Warner Official Re-mastered Edition where the sound is excellent throughout and apparently an improvement on what has gone before. This Edition doesn't include the opera recordings.

[Bryn]

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

Might it not be cheaper to buy the complete remastered edition? It seems to have gone up by around £35 since I got it but still looks to be a better option.

[jayne lee wilson]

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.

I think that's a little hard on Dutoit - his Roussel 1and 2 are indeed slightly undercharacterised, but the 3rd and 4th are very close to the thrills of Cluytens and Munch; and the ONF definitely have the right sound - the palette as Karajan sometimes called it.

But imagine a Roussel 4th with VPO/Karajan around 1989.... that could have been something...

[Conchis]

In my view, von K was good at just about everything. I even like his 'big band' Mozart. I can even tolerate Bach when von K conducts it.

But even von K can't relieve the innate dullness of Haydn.

Probably more instructive to consider what he WASN'T good at - according to Richard Osborne, he was a disastrous conductor of Rhapsody in Blue.

[Conchis]

And I'm a very big fan of his suave, 'champagne in a state room at the Hofburg' Second Viennese School recordings. Yes, he makes these supposedly jagged works sound smooth and luxuriously upholstered, but what's so wrong about that? The sets sold by the buckload, too (incurring Karajan's comment, 'If you piled them all one top of each other, they'd reach higher than the Eiffel Tower!"). von K. single-handedly expanded the audience for these works!

Stravinsky's 'pet savage' comment about his first Rite was justified, imo, but I still love both Karajan's recordings. The latter comes version has less conspicuous table manners, of course.

[verismissimo]

Started the day with Gieseking's Mozart K488 and 491. Bliss.

Next to Bruckner 8/BPO from May 1957 (only preceded with EMI by a few Wagner orchestral excerpts that year).

Why no earlier Bruckner with the Philharmonia? Did Legge think it wouldn't sell?

[silvestrione]

What a refreshing thread! Makes you want to listen to all sorts of things...I think I'll put on the 'Engelskonzert' from Hindemith's 'Mathis der Maler' later.

To what's been mentioned I'd add the three Debussy La Mer, and Tchaikovsky Sym 4 and 6, in the EMI BPO version. And Brahms Sym 1 and 4. But I could go on...

[richardfinegold]

No one has mentioned his Mahler. I’ve never seen a critic praise his Mahler, either. AFAIK he only recorded 4,5,6, and 9, and all with DG. His Sixth has always been my favorite, his Fifth is almost that good, and 4&9 are certainly respectable.
Is it possible that critics of the day felt that an ex Nazi performing Mahler when musicians such as Bernstein, Solti, Klemperer Walter and Horenstein—all with Jewish backgrounds—were leading the way, was somehow distasteful? At 40 years remove, one can only marvel at the artistry here.
He is also my favorite Bruckner Conductor.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've always felt HvK's Decca recordings were his finest - from the late 50s to the mid-60s, when he had an 'exclusive' contract with them, and a few later recordings, like La Boheme and Madama Butterfly.

[cloughie]

I've always felt HvK's Decca recordings were his finest - from the late 50s to the mid-60s, when he had an 'exclusive' contract with them, and a few later recordings, like La Boheme and Madama Butterfly.

Exclusive - maybe VPO with Decca and BPO with DG? But I agree he had the great advantage of benefiting from that super Decca era!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No one has mentioned his Mahler. I’ve never seen a critic praise his Mahler, either. AFAIK he only recorded 4,5,6, and 9, and all with DG. His Sixth has always been my favorite, his Fifth is almost that good, and 4&9 are certainly respectable.
Is it possible that critics of the day felt that an ex Nazi performing Mahler when musicians such as Bernstein, Solti, Klemperer Walter and Horenstein—all with Jewish backgrounds—were leading the way, was somehow distasteful? At 40 years remove, one can only marvel at the artistry here.
He is also my favorite Bruckner Conductor.

No Mahler in the EMI box is probably the reason these haven't been referred to on this Thread, rfg. Osborne (of course) and HH Stuckenschmidt are amongst the critics who praise those Mahler recordings very highly (he also recorded Das Lied and the Ruckerts and Dead Kids) when they first appeared. Yes, they are all superb - for me Ludwig's best Das Lied, one of my three favourite Sixths - and the Live Ninth: wow!

I don't think it was entirely a "Jewish thing": Kubelik, Haitink and Barbirolli all made very well-received recordings of the repertoire. Could it be an "American thing"?

[Pianoman]

Can’t agree that ‘no critic has praised his Mahler’..!!
His second (live) 9th won a Gramophone award and is considered a classic, with a Penguin Rosette and umpteen mentions down the years.

[Conchis]

EMI never really worked out how to record Karajan, post-Legge.

As to the scarcity of EMI Bruckner - yes, I'd think Legge probably had something to do with it. von K made good by recording the 4th and the 7th for EMI in the early seventies.

[Richard Barrett]

I was going to mention Mahler, and specifically the Lied which was the recording I got to know the work from; subsequently I've heard recordings I've ended up preferring but I'll always return to it now and again. The same is not true of his Wagner, specifically the Ring - nobody else's measures up in terms particularly of the perfect relationship between voices and orchestra. Or, come to mention it, his Strauss (R). And of course Honegger.

I rather like his Stravinsky too, even if Stravinsky didn't, and his Bartók Music for... is beautiful too. I would really like to appreciate his Bruckner, but strangely it leaves me cold - I listened to the 8th not so long ago and wasn't drawn into it at all, maybe that was me.

So apart from Wagner my favourite HvK recordings are all of 20th century music. One of my first records was his Bach "orchestral" Suites 2 & 3 - I would have to be strapped down and sedated to be able to listen to that these days.

[pastoralguy]

Karajan's recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the wonderful Michel Schwalbe is still a front runner in, arguably, the most crowded field in classical music recordings. I can still remember my mother and I going to Rae Mackintosh's Shop in South Queensferry Street for my 16th birthday where I was allowed to buy 4 full price DG albums! The Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky 5, Brahms Four and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony - all with the mighty Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Karajan! I was absolutely thrilled! I'm now the fortunate owner of the Karajan 'Big Boxes' covering his DG recordings. There's very little I've been disappointed with. If I had to pick an absolute favourite it would have to be his first recording of Tchaikovsky's String Serenade where he pushes those wonderful string players to their absolute limit.