Von Karajan Brahms Discography

[richardfinegold]

How many times did HvK record the Brahms Symphonies? I’ve tried checking the sites of some of the bigger music sellers, and also googling various von K sites but there has been so much repackaging of the various recordings that I can’t tell. I know that he recorded a Beethoven cycle every decade from the 40s on but what about Brahms? My curiosity was piqued a bit a few months back when I wrote about some live Brahms fm broadcasts from the seventies that I had purchased from a specialty label in Vermont. Regrettably I had burned my DG set of his Brahms to my NAS and given the discs to a charity shop, and therefore I don’t have the metadata. The live performances sound sufficiently different interpretations to make me believe they are from different decades.
I have just returned from a vacation in Maine and while my wife and her clan were hitting the antique stores I came across one selling CDs (nice to know the technology of my early adulthood is now regarded as antiques). There was a a 2 disc set of von K and the the BPO that were being sold separately for $2 each in generic jewel boxes (I’m guessing the original container disintegrated at one point, but the CD insert was also missing). The CDs are playable, as I already spun them on the CD boom box that the rented house contained, but I have no idea when they were recorded.

[mikealdren]

Richard,
He did a few Brahms recordings but the main DG cycles are from 1963/4, a digital remake from 1977 and a final set in 1986/8; it's probably one of the earlier cycles that you have come across. I prefer the 60s performances although I've always liked the 1977 no.3.

He also recorded 1, 2 & 4 for HMV with the Philharmonia.

[Petrushka]

Karajan recorded three complete cycles for DG, much as he did with the Beethoven, that is, in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Dates are as follows:

Symphony No 1 Original LP 138 924 recorded October 11/12 1963
Symphony No 2 LP 138 925 October 10/11 1963
Symphony No 3 LP 138 926 September 28 - 30 1964
Symphony No 4 LP 138 927 October 12 - 16 1963

Symphony No 1 LP 2531 131 January 23 - 27 & February 19 1978
Symphony No 2 LP 2531 132 January 23/24 & February 6/19 1978
Symphony No 3 LP 2531 133 January 23/24 & February 6/19 1978
Symphony No 4 LP 2531 134 October 20 & December 7/23 1977

Symphony No 1 LP 4231411 January 1987
Symphony No 2 LP 4231421 June 1986
Symphony No 3 LP 4274961 October 1988
Symphony No 4 LP 4274971 October 1988

[Keraulophone]

I’ve recently acquired the live BPO/Karajan Brahms 1, recorded by the BBC in the RFH in October 1988 and released on the Testament label c/w Verklärte Nacht.

It’s the concert at which their instruments were held up by disputatious French customs and arrived at the RFH so late that no rehearsal was possible and the start was delayed by an hour.

The Brahms sounds simultaneously majestic and fluent, with Karajan achieving a rare level of intensity and control that could sound artificially imposed in his studio recordings. The Berliners play their hearts out for HvK, who died nine months later.

[cloughie]

How many times did HvK record the Brahms Symphonies? I’ve tried checking the sites of some of the bigger music sellers, and also googling various von K sites but there has been so much repackaging of the various recordings that I can’t tell. I know that he recorded a Beethoven cycle every decade from the 40s on but what about Brahms? My curiosity was piqued a bit a few months back when I wrote about some live Brahms fm broadcasts from the seventies that I had purchased from a specialty label in Vermont. Regrettably I had burned my DG set of his Brahms to my NAS and given the discs to a charity shop, and therefore I don’t have the metadata. The live performances sound sufficiently different interpretations to make me believe they are from different decades.
I have just returned from a vacation in Maine and while my wife and her clan were hitting the antique stores I came across one selling CDs (nice to know the technology of my early adulthood is now regarded as antiques). There was a a 2 disc set of von K and the the BPO that were being sold separately for $2 each in generic jewel boxes (I’m guessing the original container disintegrated at one point, but the CD insert was also missing). The CDs are playable, as I already spun them on the CD boom box that the rented house contained, but I have no idea when they were recorded.

My guess would be the 1978 set!

What are the catalogue numbers?

453097 was the 1970s set CD1 Sym1/3 CD2 Sym2/4

[jayne lee wilson]

I’ve recently acquired the live BPO/Karajan Brahms 1, recorded by the BBC in the RFH in October 1988 and released on the Testament label c/w Verklärte Nacht.

It’s the concert at which their instruments were held up by disputatious French customs and arrived at the RFH so late that no rehearsal was possible and the start was delayed by an hour.

The Brahms sounds simultaneously majestic and fluent, with Karajan achieving a rare level of intensity and control that could sound artificially imposed in his studio recordings. The Berliners play their hearts out for HvK, who died nine months later.

Drifting back to Classical from Rock and Pop, I recorded that live on a TDK SA-X on my Mother's vast Aiwa Ghettoblaster...

Years later I had a GP - a Dr. Kent, IIRC - who had actually been there. He said he'd never seen so many other conductors at a concert than were there, that night!
I had to see him several times, and he brought in the programme with the precious ticket, having kept the latter tucked into the latest CD-issue of the Karajan...

There is also an equally-incandescent DG-Japan issue of the same toured reading, from a few months earlier in Tokyo...

[Petrushka]

Drifting back to Classical from Rock and Pop, I recorded that live on a TDK SA-X on my Mother's vast Aiwa Ghettoblaster...

Years later I had a GP - a Dr. Kent, IIRC - who had actually been there. He said he'd never seen so many other conductors at a concert than were there, that night!
I had to see him several times, and he brought in the programme with the precious ticket, having kept the latter tucked into the latest CD-issue of the Karajan...

There is also an equally-incandescent DG-Japan issue of the same toured reading, from a few months earlier in Tokyo...

I tried to get into that concert but failed. Tickets must have sold out in minutes. The only time I saw Karajan was at a London concert in June 1979, an unforgettable performance of the Bruckner 8 that will stay with me for the rest of my life. That concert was broadcast on Capital Radio so Lord knows where the tapes are now. The only recording of it I've heard unfortunately has a cut in the third movement where someone has clearly changed over the cassette tape Sadly, there's also a fair amount of radio noise though modern equipment could probably get rid of that. The sound is otherwise fully acceptable.

We really need those Capital Radio tapes for a much longed for CD issue.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I’ve recently acquired the live BPO/Karajan Brahms 1, recorded by the BBC in the RFH in October 1988 and released on the Testament label c/w Verklärte Nacht.

It’s the concert at which their instruments were held up by disputatious French customs and arrived at the RFH so late that no rehearsal was possible and the start was delayed by an hour.

The Brahms sounds simultaneously majestic and fluent, with Karajan achieving a rare level of intensity and control that could sound artificially imposed in his studio recordings. The Berliners play their hearts out for HvK, who died nine months later.

I went to that concert . It was indeed majestic. I seem to remember Karajan not being well enough to make it offstage for the numerous curtain calls so he walked to the back of the first violins. Frankly the reception was so tumultuous he could have just stayed on the rostrum . Weirdly the one thing that sticks in my mind is the tremendous sound the BPO double basses made at the beginning ( and throughout) . They really dig into the strings…

[gradus]

I went to that concert . It was indeed majestic. I seem to remember Karajan not being well enough to make it offstage for the numerous curtain calls so he walked to the back of the first violins. Frankly the reception was so tumultuous he could have just stayed on the rostrum . Weirdly the one thing that sticks in my mind is the tremendous sound the BPO double basses made at the beginning ( and throughout) . They really dig into the strings…

I thought him a great Brahms conductor more to my taste than his way with Beethoven. I heard him several times in London with the VPO but not the BPO. The VPO string sound really was quite something.

[cloughie]

I thought him a great Brahms conductor more to my taste than his way with Beethoven. I heard him several times in London with the VPO but not the BPO. The VPO string sound really was quite something.

Are you talking 60s or 80s?

[Keraulophone]

I went to that concert. It was indeed majestic … Weirdly the one thing that sticks in my mind is the tremendous sound the BPO double basses made at the beginning ( and throughout) . They really dig into the strings…

I am so envious! The one remarkable Brahms 1 that I can claim to have attended was BBCSO/Boult at the Proms; it’s opening so stately that it must have been conducted one-in-a-bar.

Those Berlin basses have always been an impressive bedrock of the orchestra’s sound, perhaps reflected more than in the Philharmonie by the significant rear wall of the stage.

You must know of BPO/Karajan’s May 1972 concert, also on Testament, of your name-work plus the ‘Pastoral’, and another Heldenleben in April 1985 c/w Beethoven 4 - essential classics if ever there were any.

[richardfinegold]

Interesting update. I burned the recently acquired Karajan discs to my NAS and the Cambridge Stream Magic App offers to find discs by the decade. So my previous Karajan Brahms discs are showing in the 1960s, and the ones from the antique store are 1970s. I have also noted some differences in the movement timings.
Not sure how much I can trust this method of dating, as I have Karajan Sibelius disc showing in the 2010 folder, and with all of the reissues of Classical Material this way lies madness, although I note that in the rock section Fleetwod Mac’s “Rumours” is also listed as 2010s.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I am so envious! The one remarkable Brahms 1 that I can claim to have attended was BBCSO/Boult at the Proms; it’s opening so stately that it must have been conducted one-in-a-bar.

Those Berlin basses have always been an impressive bedrock of the orchestra’s sound, perhaps reflected more than in the Philharmonie by the significant rear wall of the stage.

You must know of BPO/Karajan’s May 1972 concert, also on Testament, of your name-work plus the ‘Pastoral’, and another Heldenleben in April 1985 c/w Beethoven 4 - essential classics if ever there were any.

Yes - I went to the Heldenleben concert in the eighties and also a Bruckner (8? ) symphony in the same decade…

[Petrushka]

Yes - I went to the Heldenleben concert in the eighties and also a Bruckner (8? ) symphony in the same decade…

That will be the one I mention above, June 19 1979 or possibly a Bruckner 5 on May 27 1981.

I tried to get into the 1985 Heldenleben concert but it was sold out by the time I got through to the RFH box office.

[Ein Heldenleben]

That will be the one I mention above, June 19 1979 or possibly a Bruckner 5 on May 27 1981.

I tried to get into the 1985 Heldenleben concert but it was sold out by the time I got through to the RFH box office.

Funny thing that Heldenleben concert . I waxed lyrical about its merits and the resplendent sound of the BPO to which a senior sound engineer at a well known broadcasting organisation oprined that he preferred Boulez and that organisation’s in-house orchestra to Karajan and the BPO playing Heldenleben “yet again”. Oh well…