Customer Reviews

Mozart: Requiem / Tomowa-Sintow, Müller Molinari, Cole, Burchuladze; von Karajan

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There is no need to say anything about Mozart's Requiem, as the facts are mostly known. The point, however, is to review Karajan's interpretation. This recording by far is the finest I have heard. I heard Karajan's with the Berliner and the Wiener; Bohm's, Abbado's, Shaw's, and Muti's.

Karajan's Wiener stands out in the fact that the music seems to come from the voice and vice versa. It is not voice and orchestra playing side by side, but a beautiful whole that seems to stem one from the other. The playing is lean, yes; but you can hear minute details and still feel the amazing weight of Mozart's final masterpiece. It's leanness is not a diminishing factor here.

It has been creticized many times - the leanness of Karajan's late style, but it is a style that gives the listener the chance to interact with his music through searching and understanding it rather than merely listen to a conductor's interpretation. It It does not overwhelm the listener but allow's him/her to get to know the music better.

Mozart: Requiem / Tomowa-Sintow, Müller Molinari, Cole, Burchuladze; von Karajan~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a splendid recording with the talented and brilliant Herbert Von Karajan. The pacing is right on the mark and this probably one of the best recordings that I have ever heard of this particular piece in question. As when it comes to any Deutsche Grammophon recording the sound is astounding and the vocal skills of the singers is without a doubt high-class. The book-let is great with well-written liner notes and an interesting short essay written Alex Hyatt King. The book-let also has some very nice photos. von Karajan is so passionate and intense and one can verily feel his passion for the music as one listens to this truly stupendous recording. Highly recommended indeed. 5 stars without a doubt!

There is no end to the number of people who will tell you that Karajan was no real interpreter of Mozart. Personally, I reject that idea completely: he is my favourite Mozart conductor. It seems to be the trend to treat Mozart's music too lightly, with little, if any, real emotion. The great German conductors of the early part of the twentieth century saw it differently, and I'm not sure why we've moved away from that (to see what I mean, listen to Furtwangler's Don Giovanni and compare it with someone like Solti or Davis). But Karajan certainly bucks the trend!
Karajan gives a wonderful reading of the Requiem in this recording. It is vital, full-bodied, and passionate.
But I will say that this is not my favourite Karajan recording of the Requiem. The best in my opinion is the 1976 recording made with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wienersingverein (same choir is also used in this recording). In comparison with the earlier recording, the tempi are a bit more mild: not quite as fast or as slow. The balance between the orchestra and the choir is marginally better with this recording, but for as good an orchestra as the the Wiener Philharmoniker is, they just don't compete with the BPO. They play a little too conservatively; not enough real weight (but that does lend to a more transparent sound, if that's what you're looking for).
The choir is a little more balanaced overall than in the earlier recording (the 1976 is a little Bass heavy). The soloists in the present recording are also not equal to what Karajan had ten years earlier. They don't blend all that well, nor is their sound indivually very refined.
You can't go too wrong with this recording, but I would look first to the 1976 version.

Herbert von Karajan is good for some things--Mozart's requiem is not one of them. I'm reading these other reviews and getting the impression that most of these people have never heard any other recordings of this piece. I'm sure of it, because this is definitely not the way it was intended to be played. I hate saying anything bad about Karajan-- He's done so much good work. Unfortunately though, this late in his career he just hammed up far too many recordings to be ignored.

One of Karajan's worst habits is to slow the pace down, drearily squeezing every last nuance out of a work, making you just want to just cover your ears. Some times he pulls it off, many times even adding something you'll have never heard before. This requiem just sounds like the little engine that could, slowly trudging up the mountain for what seems like hours.

Another bad element he brings to this recording is the cast of soloists. These are all fabulous singers with beautiful voices. (I love Vincon Cole, I have three of his recordings) But this needs to be an unpretentious piece, and these singers add drama in too many places where it isn't called for. They spoil the beauty of the work with unnecessary builds and vocal color that is really only appropriate in Italian opera.

A couple of better recordings:

-Robert Shaw conducting the Atlanta Symphony Chorus & Orchestra -Sir Neville Marriner cunducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chorus

In that order. It could be argued that the sound quality is not as good on these recordings but the interpretations are so much better it makes up for it.

I have all three of Karajan recordings of the Requiem - the 1962, 1976 and the one in question - and the 1986 performance to my mind is the most compelling of the trio - and a strong contender in a crowded market.

Why? Well, firstly, much like his recordings of the Bruckner 7th (1970, 1976 & 1989), Herbie progressively sped up in this work over time. Each movement, by and large, is faster than its predecessors. This is an asset; the Bohm DG alternative is leaden by comparison. When abetted by the Vienna Philharmonic (which was a miraculous ensemble in the 1980s - and the timpanist has a field day, happily), it makes for wonderous results.

The soloists are not overly memorable (with the exception of Burchuladze in the Tuba Mirum) and the sound-engineers could have done better in certain instances (choir-wise, where are the sopranos and altos in the first movement?? - they are inaudible - but the rest of the performance is first-rate).

Even so, these are sunspots. Listen to the end of the Lacrymosa - it is genuinely elegaic. The Hostias, redolent with grace, is an antidote to the period-practice atrocities so often committed against this movement. The so-called Sussmayer elements in the work - insofar as they can be so labelled with certainty - blaze forth as if penned by the Master himself.

Make no mistake: those wanting a traditional recording of this masterpiece - in the best sense of that word - should not go past this recording, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum.

I probably over indulged on Mozart's Requiem in years past, trying to find a performance that captured that awe-inspiring terror and tragedy that I initially experienced when I listened to the music for the first time. Karajan's last digital recording has been recommended by famous CD guides and individual reviewers here but I've never grown fond of it. I haven't listened to Karajan's earlier takes on this piece so I can't give an apples to apples comparison in that regard. But I know that every time I listen to this CD, I come away disappointed. The tempos are fast enough for a traditional approach but the slickness and smoothness of Karajan's conception turn me off. I prefer something rougher and edgier in the Requiem.

The soloists are all lightweight apart from the bass Burchuladze who is the stand out. In particular Vinson Cole annoys me. His voice is so boyish and so lacking in what I enjoy in a tenor voice, that it grieves me that Karajan was enamored with this singer and used him in much repertoire in the 1980s. For a smaller scaled Requiem in H.I.P. fashion these voices would be fine but that's not what Karajan is going for. This liturgical operatic vision demands powerful singers.

The VPO's playing is inspired. I have never been a great fan of the Vienna chorus but Karajan used them all the time, so one must deal with that. The sound quality is perhaps too digital sounding, not as natural as it should be. Overall, the performance is good enough but not inspired. There are other Requiems available that compete with Karajan. Bernstein is good but too sappy. Solti has a good one for the occasion of Mozart's anniversary in 1991. There is also the highly recommended Requiem on Philips conducted by Peter Schreier, but I didn't like that one very much, it lacks the drama and tragedy even more than the Karajan. My favorite of the traditional big scale Requiems is the Giulini on EMI. It was the first Requiem I owned and unlike so many of the other warhorses where the first version I owned fell by the wayside to a better recording, the Giulini Requiem I still return to as my go to version. The only problem with that recording is the sound has some hiss that might be problematic in the solo numbers but the big choral sections are truly epic.

Critics have complained about Karajan's slick, smooth sound for decades and usually it's just hot air by a crowd of monkeys who can't think for themselves. However in the 1980s, Karajan started to become what his fierce critics attacked him for. It's almost like he said, "the hell with it, I like a beautiful sound above everything else". This Requiem is one of those examples. It's superior to what most conductors could accomplish in this music today but for a master conductor like Karajan, I was hoping for something greater. Gorgeous CD cover photo by the way.

I have mentioned that some people critized that Karajan did not choose the original tempo. It's true, but if that is wrong, then almost all the non-authentic recordings are not correct.
After listenning to a dozen of different recordings of this great requiem, I@still believe this one Karajan made with VPO during in his late period ranks the top! The most important is the messege karajan transfered to us--- not only the sorrows for dead, but the comfort for livings.
Words are not appropriate here to describe the conductor, soloists and orchestra, as all are harmonized together, only Mozart stands in front of us.
For those who get used to the clean but dry readings of the requiem, it is the time to be touched by the music. From the heart, may it goes into the heart.

Not that Mozart needs to be assessed, but I just wanted to tell ya'll that of all Requiem recordings I've listened to, the version of the Great Herbert von Karajan is THE best. So, if you are wondering which performance of the Requiem to get, the answer the one by Karajan and the Vienna Philharmony! You won't be sorry!

Any performance can only be as good as its piece. Now, in the first 10 numbers of this piece, we have as close to perfect as any 18th century church music ever got. However, after this is where the problems arise. To take the sanctus alone, the problems include: Parallel 5ths in bar 4, stagnant harmony preceding the fugue, poorly developed fugue(he ends without even completing the exposition!), and clumsy voice-leading. The benedictus' theme is actual mozart(it comes from a sketch from the Sketchbook for Barbara Ployer), but poorly developed from bar 19 onwards. I could go on, but this is supposed to be a review of a cd, rather than of the piece.
The choir's diction is dreadful, I must say. The sanctus is done very majestically, perhaps a tad overdone, but the most horrendous thing is that Karajan brings out the strings as loudly as possible in bars 1-4, emphasising the parallel 5ths for all the world to hear. The benedictus lacks some of the sweetness that you'd expect from the contemporary Magic Flute (of which karajan's performances are arguably the best.) The fugue in b flat major (another one of Sussmayr's errors, by the way-it should be in d) is led into dramatically. I felt that the performance lacked some of the mastery of others. Personally, I felt that the intonation was bad in places, and that the trombone doubling in the tuba mirum was unnecessary. The strings' rhythm was slightly off in the Requiem aeternam (if you listen carefully, you will hear that the chords are played with a sort of glissando effect).
If you want to hear the greatest performance available of the Requiem, please look into the Mackerras performance of the robert levin completion, which is a must for any Mozart fan.
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Karajan's forte was big Romantic works, and his approach doesn't work as well for such a strict quasi-rococo classical work.
To hear Karajan at his best, try the Beethoven symphony cycle, Tchaikovsky Pathétique, or the Wagner Ring des Nibelungen.

This recording was made in 1986,in Wiener.It's three years before the death of Karajan.I'm sure more or less he could find the feeling of Mozart's Requiem.Both Karajan and Mozart were born in Slazburg,so Karajan understood Mozart so well, especially in this work.In this recording,the speed and power is just fit,coveying both solemnity and more disturbing emotions.The performemce is full of imagination.It makes people have a feel of transfiguration. The is the valueable legacy of Mozart and Karajan.It's the best Requiem I have ever heard. ³öÉñÈ뻯µÄÑݳö£¬Ê¹ÈËÁé»êµÃµ½Éı»ªºÍ½â·Å£¬Ê×ѡ¼Òô¡£