Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Overtures

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As usual, Karajan and BPO are at their best. Where else can one find a complete set of Beethoven's overtures that is played with such an intensity and accuracy? The understanding between the orchestra & conductor is obvious. Playing is tight and tempo is generally fast. Although some hiss is present and balance between difference sections may not always be ideal, the quality of playing outweighs these imperfections.

Beethoven put in some ordinary days at the office, even in his maturity. What if our knowledge of his output was confined to the Name-Day Overture, the Consecration of the House, King Stephen and the Ruins of Athens? Down the ranks he would have plummeted. This is your life, Louis Spohr 2!

We all remember Beecham's comment on Karajan - it was worthy of Martial. While this collection is our only chance to hear him in Leonore I & II, it might as well be Flash Harry on the podium. These performances was recorded either in 1965 or in early 1969 in the lead up to the Beethoven bicentenary when DG needed to plug some holes in their catalogue. At the time, both the conductor and the orchestra were at the height of their fame and boy did they know it. Karajan was often photographed with his various array of sports-cars and in this instance, he used the Berlin Philharmonic in such a fashion to hammer his way through these pieces. It is the triumph of virtuosity over truth-telling. One never senses a Klemperer like determination "to wrestle these pieces to the ground" irrespective of what the gallery thinks. If Fidelio the opera - one of Beethoven's most personal creations - had been lost forever, one would be hard-pressed to reconstruct its aspirations on the basis of these slick performances.

Nor is a comparison with Furtwangler in Coriolanus to Herbie's advantage Brahms: Symphonies, Hungarian Dances, Haydn Variations; Beethoven: Overtures / Furtwangler, Berlin PO, Vienna PO. The latter could serve as a prelude to a production of Oepidus at Colonus. Karajan's interpretation makes all the right gestures but fails to instil any genuine catharsis

Worse still, the remastering of this collection was inept. All of these performances are treble-heavy

Genuine "Olympic Grandeur" is to be found in Karajan's remakes of Coriolanus, Egmont, Fidelio and Leonore 3 that were used as so-called fillers for his digital Beethoven set. Here, with death perched on his shoulder, Karajan exorcised the Flash Harry within to deliver stunning renditions: Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"; Egmont Overture & Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 / Overtures: Fidelio, Leonore III, Coriolan. The better instincts of the Berlin Philharmonic are duly engaged. They are fulsomely recorded as well.

Direct your energies there. Nor do you need these Louis Spohr calling-cards.

Brilliant performances. Brilliant recordings. Brilliant pieces. Reasonable price. It's hard to go wrong here.

The only negative is I wish the jewel case was thinner. These thick ones do not fit in my CD holders very well.