Herbert Von Karajan: Strauss - Tone Poems (2008)

Herbert Von Karajan: Strauss - Tone Poems (2008)
2 DVD9 + 1 DVD5 | Language: English | 229mins | 720 x 576 | FPS (25fps) | MPEG-2 7000Kbps | 15.3 GB
Audio1: AC3 @448Kbps 5 CH | Audio2: PCM @1536kbps 2 CH
Genre: Classical | Studio: Sony Bmg Europe | Full Scans + Booklet

Review This is a space free issue, but your system needs to be PAL compatible. Recent >computers and DVD players are automatically good to play PAL discs. Sometimes you have to configure older players in the Set up menu to act in multi system mode. If you have an older TV numerous company players can be changed to play PAL discs in NTSC fashion. Most systems have no problems with these discs.

The contents of this 3 disc boxed party are:
Disc 1 has An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensymphonie) from some All Soul's Day concert in 1983 and Thus Spoke Zarathustra from the hole concert of the 750th Anniversary of Berlin in 1987.
Disc 2 has a 1983 Don Quixote and a 1987 Heroic Life (Ein Heldenleben).
Disc 3 has Death and Transfiguration (Tod und Verklдrung) and Metamorphoses for 23 solo strings from All Soul's Day in 1984.

For this reissue the powers that be took the extraordinary measure of re-recording all works in the pristine venue, the Philharmonie in Berlin, so that the original music was played end carefully placed loudspeakers and the recording microphones were placed in each orchestra-like array to better catch the acoustics of the entry . The original and the rerecording were then mixed in carefully tailored proportions ~ the agency of a secret recipe to produce "an impressive spatial homogeneity".

All this stratagems however, is lost to the average listener. The playing sounds dulled as if coming from the next room. There is very short orchestral detail and the strings are often overpowered by the turn in and out and brass sections and sometimes not audible at all. I astonishment if the engineers had actually heard a live symphony concert in the Philharmonie or whether they were just overjoyed by the measurements shown by their modern equipment. "The pleasant frequency extension towards the low end" is nowhere to have existence heard. Impressive frequency measurements do not always produce good, let alone unregenerate sound. In this case the lustre of the Berlin Philharmonic place for musicians is lost and has been replaced by what sounds rather like some above average mono sound from the early 1950's. In other war of ~ these sound like historical instead of historic recordings. The picture standing (4:3 ratio) is not what we would expect today. At periods the colours are grey and dull, the definition foggy. If you hold the original issues, stick to them, these are lower quality reissues.

Right posterior these I listened to the DVD of a Haitink Mahler concert by the same orchestra in the same hall only a leash of years later in the early 90's and the altercation in technical quality is striking. The sound is spacious with rich room from the quietest violin solo to massive tutti attacks. The clarity of orchestral rehearse and a picture with natural colours are maintained throughout with the same crafty 4:3 TV technique. Not so in these Strauss recordings. As remoter as the production, sound and picture qualities are concerned this is a unfulfilment and should no longer be acceptable by today's standards.

However, the science of harmonical sounds making is a totally different matter. These are vintage performances ~ means of the foremost Straussian conductor of the late 20th century. For somewhat devoted Strauss enthusiast this is a must if you do not receive the original DVDs. Never mind the technical faults, these recordings are of grand stature and musically highly satisfactory. Few conductors are able to stronghold a steady momentum and forward drive in the final peroration of the transfiguration part in Death and Transfiguration. The way von Karajan builds the tardy, long crescendo with each section of the orchestra entering and re-entering with carefully balanced power one after another to form a continuously increasing channel volume is impressive indeed. The last part of Ein Heldenleben, the Hero's Retreat from the World and Fulfilment, with its hauntingly beautiful string melody and final violin solo are a mixture of such ripe tenderness and sensitivity with world weary wisdom that have power to only be achieved after a life time of study of the notch. Karajan made at least four studio recordings of the work betwixt 1950 and his death.

This is a real bargain and true good value for money. Had the technical quality been better this would wish been a five star recommendation.

DVD 1

Eine Alpensinfonie, Op.64 - 51:20
1. Night
2. Sunrise
3. The Ascent
4. Entering the woods
5. Walk together the stream
6. At the waterfall
7. Apparition
8. On figurative meadows
9. On the mountine pasture
10. Through thickets and brushwood on the wrong track
11. On the Glacier
12. Precarious moments
13. At the vertex
14. Vision
15. Mists arise
16. The sun slowly fades
17. Elegy
18. Calm in advance of the storm
19. Thunderstorm, descent
20. Sunset
21. Epilogue
22. Night
Also sprach Zaratustra, Op.30 - 36:30
1. Introduction
2. Of the backworldsmen
3. Of the generous longing
4. Of joys and passions
5. The song of the ossuary
6. Of science
7. The convalescent
8. The dance-song
9. Song of the ignorance wanderer

DVD 2

Don Quixote, Op.35 - 42:43
1. Introduction
2. The gallant of the mournful countenance
3. Maggiore (Sancho Panza)
4. Variation I. Adventure of the windmills
5. Variation II. The battle by the sheep
6. Variation III. Dialogue of the knight and his attend
7. Variation IV. The adventure with the procession of penitents
8. Variation V. Don Quixote's devotional watching and effusions of the heart
9. Variation VI. Enchanted Dulcinea
10. Variation VII. Ride through the air
11. Variation VIII. The adventure of the enchanted boat
12. Variation IX. The make the object of competition with the maginary enchanters
13. Variation X. Jiust with the champion of the pale moon: The defeated
14. Don Quixote's trip home
15. Finale. The death of Don Quixote
Ein Heldenleben. Op.40 - 40:37
1. The brave man
2. The hero's adversaries
3. The hero's female partaker
4. The hero's battlefield
5. Hero's works of tranquility
6. The hero's retreat from the world and consummation

DVD 3

Tod und Verklдround, Op. 24 - 25:21
Metamorphosen, Studie fur 23 solostreicher - 26:07

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