Customer Reviews

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Wagner / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

With due respect to the criticisms that the quality of this 1959 performance is somewhat diminished because the Berlin Philharmonic lacked the opulent sonority they later developed under Karajan, I for one, think the sound of the Berliners as captured here is superb and a complement to their last, and also superb, digital recording with Karajan. The BPO's virtuosity and passion were as present in 1959 as they are 30 years later. It just happens that the sound textures of their strings metamorphosed through continued collaboration with Karajan. If you admire Karajan's latter disc, this 1959 performance is a must-have in your Richard Strauss collection. Appreciated together, they document the beginning and end of a great orchestra's association with a great conductor.

Admittedly this is far from Karajan's best recording of a Strauss tone poem, yet this 1959 account of "Ein Heldenleben" is spellbinding in its own right with a fine violin solo from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's concertmaster, Michel Schwalbe. I agree with a previous reviewer who noted how the orchestra plays without the cohesion and opulence of sound one hears in the great 1960's and 1970's Deutsche Grammophon recordings. I suppose this merits inclusion as part of Deutsche Grammophon's The Originals series since this was Karajan's very first recording for the label. It is coupled with a splendid performance of Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll" from the 1970's. Fans of both Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic will not be disappointed with this CD.

This is one of the greatest versions of R. Strauss's Heldenleben I`ve ever heard together to the one with Fritz Reiner in Living Stereo. Karajan transports you into the world of the hero with such subtleness that is impossible to avoid good sensations. I can't say more words about this... just listen and close your eyes.

This symphonic poem is perhaps, one of the best compositions of R. Strauss. Written for large orchestra (ex. quadruple woodwinds, 8 horns, 5 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 tubas, harps, timpani, several drums, cymbals, a large string ensemble)

This is an autobiographical work. The Hero is the composer, you know. Enemies of Hero are critics (of course), and in 4th movement, there is a battle of they. Especially, this movement is very impressive and Karajan and his Berlin PO are excellent in this work. And, in 5th movement Strauss used themes from his some famous early works, including: Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Quixote etc...

The performance of Wagner is also very good.

Highly recommended, especially for Richard Strauss fans...

As in many of Karajan's recordings from right after Allied authorities in former 3rd Reich territories allowed him to work again, through the fifties and sixties, this Heldenleben is preferable to his later remakes for EMI (analogue), Sony (video) and (again) DG (DDD CD). Taped after a series of Berlin concerts featuring the work given the previous autumn, the recording evidences right from the beginning Karajan's especially tuned ear to, and inner understanding of, Strauss's music. Indeed, Ein Heldenleben features throughout Karajan's career as no other major work by Strauss, the Karajan Centrum website actually presenting 70 performances of the work throughout the conductor's life, from the mid-1930's until the late 1980's.

Karajan was 50 when in late winter 1959 he set to tape this, not only his first recording of the work but also his return to DGG since the war and one of the company's first essays in the then novel art of stereo recording. The performance is first-rate and the berliners, then in the middle of their transitional years from what was still much Furtwängler's orchestra to the awesomely virtuosistic instrument Karajan fashioned and stunned the world with, played impeccably for him, in the end presenting a hero at times electrical, others loving, imposingly victorious, pensive or compassionate. Many a critic has hinted at Karajan not only throughly digesting Strauss's work but even kind of mirroring himself in the character the composer portrayed. Perhaps. Karajan's personality was no run-of-the-mill and was by the end of the fifties enjoying as much fame all over the world as perhaps only a Hollywood star or a famous sportsman or world politician could achieve. So, perhaps, he might as well see himself replicated in Strauss's hero, as the composer himself did in his turn, going as he was through a similar peak of achievement and fame in the Germany of his day, some five decades before this recording of one of his best works.

The recording is very good and sounds fresh and lively, in spite of its vintage, with that special sonority given to the Berlin Philharmonic by the Berlin-Dahlem church where DGG used to record them before switching to the Philharmonie a decade or so later. The Siegfrid Idyll, recorded almost 20 years later at the Philharmonie, presents an altogether different sound world, drier and typical not only of Karajan's mannerisms of the time but also of DG's. He seems a different conductor, far more indulgent that in 1959, and as in much of his work of those years apparently far more concerned in how whatever was being played sounded than on what was being actually played, in that kind of quest for sensousness at all costs that to me plagues much of what he did then. I don't mean this is a performance of the Siegfrid Idyll to be played down or discarded, not at all, but there are (again, to me) more satisfying ones in the catalogue and the result is not on a par achievement level as with the Strauss work that preceedes it in the disc. No, the disc represents a must-buy for the Heldenleben performance, which after so many years outshines most versions available and can be considered now a document of prime importance of Karajan at the very peak of his considerable powers.

One final, quite minor, point but perhaps pertinent to this Ein Heldenleben being reissued in DG's "The Originals" series. My copy of the original LP, DGG's 138025 SLPM, shows in the cover not the illustration shown by the CD (and which I do in turn remember from the US open-reel tape made and marketed by Ampex) but a black-and-white mid-body photograph of Herbert von Karajan before a red background. Different covers to tend to different markets? I don't think DG could afford that in the late fifties ...

It was 1959 and Karajan was returning to DG in his first post-war recording for the company. It was a case of the conductor striving to make an impression to land a big contract. DG also wanted the conductor real bad, so they got their best engineers and marketing team on board. The music chosen was Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss, an apt orchestral showpiece if ever there was one. This tone poem had a few major recordings in it's history already. The Clemens Krauss, the Thomas Beecham, the new Fritz Reiner on RCA as well as Richard Strauss conducting himself from before the war.

This Karajan record swept all competition before it. The energy of the playing... the luster of the strings... the menacing brass section... Michael Schwalbe in a gorgeous violin solo... the sound stage in the church acoustic... all are pitch perfect. Karajan's control of the achitecture of the piece is second to none. There have been several dozen high-profile Heldenlebens since and the main competition to be found is Karajan himself, especially on his stunning EMI record. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben / Wagner: Flying Dutchman Overture; Parsifal - Preludes to Acts 1 & 3 By that point, the sheen of the Berlin Philharmonic is simply mesmerizing and the playing is even more ecstatic in some sections. But this earlier DG performance has it's own mystique and it feels a bit more spontaneous here and there. The Hero's withdrawal from the world is really moving on this CD.

Karajan's last digital Gold version I have reviewed too. Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben/Tod und Verklärung It's also fantastic yet the tempos are slightly slower than before and the somewhat glassy digital sound isn't the heavenly lushness EMI gave to Karajan in the 70s.

If Ein Heldenleben matters to you at all, I'm sure you've ventured into Karajan's recordings as they are hands down the best among a crowd stacked with the likes of Krauss, Beecham, Reiner, Ormandy, Solti, Kempe, Rattle, Thielemann and many more. I listen to different conductors for the various insights they provide but I return to Karajan if I want the best. It's a choice between the EMI and this DG, depending on if you want the prime, super lush Berlin sound of the 70s or the slightly rougher but more spontaneous sounding BPO of the late 50s.

Works by Richard Strauss and Wagner are magnificently represented here. More appropriately it can be said that Karajan demonstrates his greatness with his close relationship with Richard Strauss' compositions. This recording of `Ein Heldenleben' started the long association of Karajan with Deutsche Grammophon. Thanks to the influence of Richard Strauss on Karajan, Deutsche Grammophon became the preeminent label associated with classical music recordings. The Strauss and Wagner pieces here were recorded about ten years apart yet they complement each other beautifully.

This 1959 Ein Heldenleben is noble and well-characterized. Michel Schwalbé contributes a sinuous violin solo, the BPO plays opulently, and Karajan conducts with a grasp of the overall structure in addition to his grand, Straussian sweep.

Something is missing, however. A look at the timeline of Karajan and the BPO explains it. Karajan had only become the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic a few years before making this recording. He and the orchestra had not yet totally figured each other out the way they had by the mid-60's, and Karajan had not yet turned the orchestra into the best-in-the-world group they would become. And so, in this recording, there is still a - very - slight degree of raw-toned playing and less than knife-edged ensemble; a certain degree of intensity is also missing. A slightly larger degree of spontaneity than was the norm in Karajan's later recordings almost, but doesn't quite, compensate. But this is still a heroic, noble, passionate reading by anyone's standards.

The 1977 Siegfried Idyll makes a very appropriate filler. Here, the BPO is as good as it gets, with glorious tone from the strings. Karajan emphasizes the work's beauty and peace, creating a sense of calm repose that makes this unsurpassed.

The playing time of just over an hour is not as generous as usual in DG's Originals series, but it's not worth complaining about. Informative liner notes by Hans Ritter, the producer of the Heldenleben sessions, and Richard Osborne.

These are fine recordings of both Strauss's Heldenleben and Wagner Siegfried Idyll, even if neither is my favourite recording of the respective composition (those would be e.g. Mengelberg and Reiner in the former, and Cluytens, Klemperer, Knappertsbusch and Walter in the latter). I nonetheless find it an indispensable disc because of "Pauline's music", that is, the third movement from Ein Heldenleben with Michel Schwalbé playing the solo violin. Believe me, those 13 minutes alone (akin to a mini violin concerto, if not one gorgeous cadenza!) are easily worth the price of admission!

Greetings from Switzerland, David.