Herbert von Karajan live in Berlin, 1953–1969
Berliner Philharmoniker/Herbert von Karajan
rec. live 1953-1969
Mono/Stereo
Reviewed from download
Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings BPHR240291 [1466]
My colleague, John Quinn has dealt with the first twelve concerts (discs 1-10), running between 1953 and 1963 (review). In this review I will deal with the remaining concerts, which took place between 1964 and 1969. I have worked through downloads, so over the course of these two reviews readers will get a view of the collection in both formats. Our reviews have been produced completely independently of each other.
In May 1964 Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker gave a concert devoted to Strauss in their shiny new home. First came the charming concerto for oboe and small orchestra Strauss had written in the Autumn of 1945. He had been prompted to do so by a meeting in Garmisch with John de Lancie, Reiner’s principal oboe in Pittsburgh, where De Lancie was based as part of the American army of occupation. Strauss takes a backward-looking nostalgic glance at the works of his youth and attempts to re-interpret the model of the classical concerto. It is infused with a light playful spirit and conjures an Arcadian, Mozartian world. The soloist is BPO principal Lothar Koch.
Koch was a wonderful player with a highly distinctive sound. This live account is superb. He did record it in 1969 for Deutsche Grammophon (DG) with Karajan but this rendition is even finer, especially if you love the sound of the oboe. The pure mono sound captured by the engineers at Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) highlights the instrument more vividly than the stereo DG which in fairness has the warmer, more homogenised sound you would expect in a studio production. In 1980 Hansjörg Schellenberger took the oboe lead in the orchestra and he, too, recorded it for DG with James Levine. Of course, Léon Goossens’ recording from 1948 originally issued on three dark-blue Columbia 78s is sui generis but do try and hear this excellent one from Lothar Koch.
After the concerto, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf took to the stage for the Four Last Songs. She had recorded them as early as 1953 in London and was to do so again in Berlin the year after this performance. Here on stage with Karajan she seems far from comfortable to me. Frühling is an unhappy affair, Karajan seems to be pushing too hard and her tone is forced. September is better and Schwarzkopf seems to settle. Beim Schlafengehen offers moments where we hear Schwarzkopf’s radiance and warmth but in the glorious final song Im Abendrot Karajan presses too insistently again. At 6:39 this song is despatched far more swiftly than in her studio version with Szell (8:20) and I cannot believe any lover of Strauss wants to rush this music. Schwarzkopf is actually in her best form in this finale but with all her other versions available and others I probably won’t be returning to this performance.
The all-Strauss concert ended with that Karajan favourite, Ein Heldenleben. In his excellent survey of the work’s recordings for MWI, Ralph Moore discusses all three of Karajan’s studio recordings (and various live ones too). This new concert version is magnificent. Karajan always had a special vision for this masterwork and the orchestra have real authority, sweep and majesty. Michel Schwalbé takes the important violin solo (the notes do not specifically say this, but I am sure it is he) with elegant virtuosity. The sound is pretty good; it doesn’t match the 1959 DG stereo sound, let alone that captured by EMI in 1974 but it is well balanced and rich. At 46:40, it is consistent to within a minute of all other Karajan versions. If you fancy a sample try dipping in at track 6 (5:07) and just wallow in the sheer beauty for a minute or so; Karajan has slowed the pace here and the legendary strings of the Philharmoniker play like gods.
In August of this year Karajan took the Strauss program to Salzburg for a repeat show. The following season saw Karajan take the BPO to America in January. On 25 February 1965 back home in the Philharmonie they presented Bruckner’s 8th Symphony.
After the war Walter Legge had signed Karajan for Columbia and they made some legendary records in London and Vienna. In November 1958, they presented to the record buying public this symphony in a performance from the BPO recorded in May 1957 in the Grunewaldkirche. It was a game-changer for the work. Over four sides (one per movement), Columbia 33CX 1586/7 is for many the record (alongside the Concertgebouw’s seventh with van Beinum) that introduced them to Bruckner. It was released in mono only, the stereo tapes suppressed until the early 60s but the performance is immense. This live rendition from Karajan and the BPO is on a similar scale and is another highly impressive account.
Karajan had first conducted Bruckner 8 in Aachen before he was even 30. After the war he programmed it several times in Vienna with the Wiener Symphoniker, introduced it to his Berlin audience first in 1957 and even toured it worldwide with the Wiener Philharmoniker in 1959. By 1965 now aged 56, he had lived with the work for many years and his understanding of it was solid. In his splendid essay in the notes to this set, Peter Uehling makes the point that for Karajan the work (especially the finale) was a challenge and a lifelong struggle that was only resolved at the end of his life in those radiant final performances of Bruckner 8 he gave with the VPO. I agree that those last performances are very special but being a lover of the old Columbia records I adore the similarly long view of the adagio and finale we have here in 1965.
At 27:01 the adagio, the heart of the symphony is imposing and Karajan builds securely with assuredness and control in the proper tradition. The sound is warm and rich and the orchestra play superbly. The finale is nearly 26 minutes long. The opening chorale is powerful. The second song-like theme begins at 1:48, whilst the final march theme is heard at 4:27. In the long development of these themes, Peter Uehling is critical of Karajan’s reading calling it incoherent. I don’t think this is fair; of course, Bruckner’s style is episodic and builds in layers but the grand span is always in view and I am convinced by Karajan’s architectural vision. The coda is well judged and the symphony ends in what Robert Simpson used to call “blazing calm”. The edition used is Haas, 1939.
After a busy summer of concerts as well as Boris Godunov and Elektra at Salzburg, Karajan opened the subscription season for 1965/66 with a Mozart, Bennett and Dvořák programme. The Divertimento No.15, K287 was a favourite of his during his time with the Philharmonia and after this first time with the BPO he came back to it often right up to the mid-80s. In this performance, he omits the second minuet and trio. Later in the season, Karajan and the BPO took the piece into the studio and recorded it for DG with the full six movements. The live version here is charming, light, shot through with pure happiness and is the perfect opener.
Next comes the Aubade by Richard Rodney Bennett. This is an excellent piece which is bigger than its 9:38 duration suggests. The orchestra sound completely won over by it and the rhapsodic performance is heartfelt. After the interval the orchestra played Dvořák’s New World. Karajan had by this time had recorded this with the Philharmonic three times. First in the uneasy days of the phoney war in March 1940 (12 sides of Polydor shellac), for Columbia in 1958 and again for DG in 1964 at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Dahlem. I listened to all these three versions to complement this new live one from 1965 and was struck by the shared sense of structure and proportion in all. Karajan clearly loved the work and this shows in all his versions including his recordings from the 70s and 80s. The sound captured here is not as warm and bright as on the contemporaneous DG recording but it is an exciting account of the work especially in the outer movements. In the largo Gerhard Stempnik plays the profound cor anglais solo so tenderly; in fact, the spell cast on this movement in this performance is very special indeed. In the marvellous finale Dvořák waits until the development before bringing back themes from the first three movements in a Beethovenian way. It is a masterful construction and in this rendition hugely effective and moving. We weren’t lacking in Karajan records of the New World but we are even richer for this new one.
Between Christmas and New Year of the same season Karajan and the BPO gave two concerts again devoted to Strauss. In the first half they played Also sprach Zarathustra. Their 1973 DG album of this has always been a top recommendation (survey). From the opening Sunrise and the descent into the primitive state of early mankind this is a symphonic journey through gloom and ignorance to enlightenment and the mastery of nature and science by humanity. Karajan’s orchestra are supreme in negotiating the contours of this rich score and their vision is little different to the studio account, although in less opulent sound. After the interval the orchestra re-assembled with the cellist Pierre Fournier for Don Quixote. Earlier that week, they had been at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche recording this very piece for DG so this concert performance was – shall we say? – well-rehearsed.
Pierre Fournier was an expert of this piece. He had recorded it in mono with the Wiener Philharmoniker under the great Strauss interpreter Clemens Krauss for Decca (LXT 2842) and in 1960 in stereo with the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell. My favourite of his three studio traversals of this score is the Cleveland. Here, live in Berlin, he is inspired and engages in charming dialogue with the characterful Berlin soloists to marvellous effect (I only wish he had been captured a little more forwardly by the stage mics). There is so much I could highlight and signpost of note in this account but space precludes unfortunately; for more on these two pieces why not check out this review of a Salzburg concert from 1964 with the same programme, conductor and soloist but featuring the VPO.
Skipping forward two years we next come to a concert from October 1967. Karajan joins Jörg Demus and Christoph Eschenbach in the concerto for three keyboards and orchestra, K242 by Mozart. They had given this work together at that year’s Salzburg Festival where Karajan and Szell had also switched and conducted each-others’ orchestra. This is a charming light performance of this easy-going piece. The central adagio is an elegant and heartfelt, infused like most Mozart concerto slow movements with a vocal line of intimate beauty. The concert ends with Bruckner 4th Symphony, the Romantic. Karajan and the BPO had performed this work before in the subscription season 1961/62 but may not have been as familiar with it as with the mighty 8th; in the sixties, it is fair to say not many of the public would have been, either.
We hear the normal 1881 version of the symphony as premiered by the VPO and Hans Richter. The first movement thematic groups are presented assuredly. Brass are very impressive in the first group crescendo. The Gesangsperiode is given at a flowing tempo that works perfectly. The players relish the shifting harmonies of the development section as Bruckner builds up intensity in those waves so characteristic of his style. Climaxes are impeccably judged and immense when they arrive. The recapitulation begins at 12:10 and the coda when it arrives is triumphant. The movement comes in at 18:47, a good two minutes faster than in the EMI version of 1970.
The sombre cortège that is the slow movement is understated by design I think. Karajan paces it more sedately than in 1970 and in his later DG recording. Dynamics are reserved and the sense of stillness is palpable. It is an intriguing vision. The Hunt scherzo is all we would hope for. The Berlin horn quartet and their fellow brass colleagues deliver as you would expect, if not completely eclipsing other dream-teams from that era we might remember (for me personally, Chicago). The finale is dramatic, imposing whilst also being lyrical and rhapsodic in places. Karajan bridges this juxtaposition with great skill and it is a fine account.
Between October and the New Year Karajan was in New York conducting Die Walküre at the Met. He also flew in the BPO for three all Bach concerts at Carnegie Hall. At the New Year, he was back in Berlin for a concert containing one work, Beethoven’s 9th.
My colleague John Quinn, reviewing the first part of this edition, has already discussed two Ninths given in 1957 (his first with the BPO) and 1963 (opening the Philharmonie). This performance from the first day of 1968 is for me impressive. In the first two movements Karajan presses harder than in any of his five studio versions and the live ones in this set. It makes for an exciting experience. Karajan turned sixty that year and his experience with the orchestra and with Beethoven is tangible. It is hard not to admire his grip and control on the players and their discipline even if you may on occasion wish he had allowed them a little more freedom here and there. The unstoppable building up of tension in first movement is conveyed and continues with a dark and relentless scherzo. In his analysis of these recordings in the box, Peter Uehling is highly critical of the concert, hearing a routine performance where Karajan has lost interest in the piece and just strives for balance, ensemble and a specific sonority of sound. We all hear music differently and interpretation in Beethoven can be highly subjective. I urge listeners to hear the end of the finale as a test case. On the one hand this life affirming triumphant prestissimo is surely not the sound of an orchestra and director bored with the piece and going through the motions, yet I can also see why some might find it sterile in its tight ensemble and uniformity of intent. I found the adagio very touching conveying the nobility and humanity surely Beethoven intended. Karajan here is more indulgent in his tempi with a timing of 16:42.
In September 1968 Karajan and the Philharmoniker gave a Brahms cycle at the Philharmonie. We next hear two of those four concerts containing Symphonies 2-4 and the Piano Concerto No.2 (missing are the First Symphony, the Violin Concerto with Ferras and Ein Deutsches Requiem). The partnership had committed all the symphonies (and more) to vinyl in 1963/4 so this revisiting of 1968 is interesting.
Brahms 4 was programmed before the interval at the second concert. Most collectors will be familiar with the oft-issued 1978 DG record but I have an attachment to the 4-LP set issued in 1964 of the four symphonies. This live version is very like the one in that box set. I don’t think many of us would rate any of Karajan’s Brahms as an essential library choice but it is meaty, well played and vital. I wonder how many of the players in 1968 had performed these works with Furtwängler. The Fourth is despatched in just under 41 minutes. There are indeed some lovely tender moments in the nocturnal slow movement. The chorale which opens the finale features the so-far unused trombones. The chaconne that develops from it is relentless and powerful and the great tragedy of the movement comes across well with steady pace and a building sense of fate.
After the break the audience heard Géza Anda in the Piano Concerto No.2. As usual with the music in this box, a studio recording exists. The previous September Anda, Karajan and the BPO had set it down. There exists an earlier recording from the beginning of the decade also made in Berlin with Fricsay similarly available on the yellow label. Best known now perhaps for his Bartók and his Mozart, Anda was a thoughtful artist. Another intellectual musician Furtwängler once dubbed him the “troubador of the piano”. There are a few mistakes in his performance but it is worth hearing for its clarity and cohesion (listen to his crisp staccato in the finale). In the lovely andante third movement he is joined by principal cellist Eberhard Finke. Karajan is a highly effective accompanist in this concert (unfortunately he was not always so collaborative in manner). In reviewing this disc, I reflected on how long it had been since I last heard this work. This performance made me fall in love with it all over again, like the first time.
Two days later the Brahms cycle continued with symphonies 2 and 3. The Third was programmed first as it usually is. Karajan dispenses with repeats so this account comes in at exactly 32 minutes just like the studio version of exactly four years earlier. The surging first theme is suitably heroic and in Brahms’ super-economical development it mingles with the more pastoral second theme memorably. Karajan sets up a good pace for the second movement and allows the chromatic chords Brahms uses to really tell as the folksong-like tune comes around again at the end. I think it is Karl Leister’s lovely tone we hear on the principal clarinet line. The bittersweet waltz of the third movement is nicely done with leggiero. Karajan lets the horns countermelody come through noticeably at 5:03. In the finale, we experience all the turmoil and mood swings we always should in this music; the ending though is introverted and pensive. It is certainly an enigmatic piece. Karajan’s view of it isn’t ground breaking but there are moments of real understanding and the orchestra are faultless.
The Symphony No. 2 given at the same concert is one of Brahms’ sunniest works, yet there is always the undercurrent of darkness (in the first movement that timpani roll and the gloomy trombone and tuba tones thereafter). By 1968, Karajan had already committed it to disc three times with three different orchestras. All these versions are remarkably similar in concept as is this account live at the Philharmonie. The adagio is for me the heart of the work. I get the feeling, too, that here we experience the pinnacle of Karajan’s entire cycle. The cellos of the BPO are tremendous in their rich sonority and the arch of the movement feels just right. The finale is so glorious, exuberant, even. The orchestra go at quite a lick and the end is a race to the finish, which is exactly how it should be in this one of the most high-spirited and euphoric endings in all symphonic music. Overall timing is a few seconds shy of 40 minutes.
Like the year before, Karajan spent November at the Met conducting Wagner. In January back in Berlin he presented an interesting program of Handel, Ligeti and Schubert. The first half of Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op.6/8 and Ligeti’s recent “2001” smash-hit Atmosphères is short measure with just under 23 minutes of music but what an interesting juxtaposition. Karajan had spent time every August since 1964 recording the baroque repertory at St. Moritz in Switzerland (his home) and he had just finished his complete set of Handel’s Op.6 the previous Summer. Here, live in Berlin, he presents the work fresh from that experience (the notes state he had done it first in 1965 but I don’t think this is true).
What a different approach we have here in Handel from that presented in the concert of September 1959 and reviewed in part 1 by John Quinn. Here, less than ten years later, textures seem lighter, rhythms springier and there is more attention to the little things. I wonder if Karajan actually directed this performance from the harpsichord continuo as I believe he did in some of the DG recordings. After the plush strings of the Philharmoniker had limbered up on Handel, they tackled the very different world of György Ligeti. Written in 1961, the micropolyphony of Atmosphères is a fascinating piece and pivotal to an understanding of this composer. For Karajan this was a one-off performance, though, and he never returned to Ligeti or this genre of music; indeed, the booklet notes ponder on whether the inclusion of it in the concert was justified by the timely release in cinemas of the Stanley Kubrick film previously mentioned.
Schubert’s Great C major was the one work in the second half of the concert. Once again, this presentation followed a recently made recording (this one made the previous September in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche). Peter Uehling in his analysis is once again dismissive of Karajan’s view of Schubert and I understand critics at the time were lukewarm. I on the other hand think this is an excellent rendition of the great work. Karajan lets wind and brass textures through noticeably and the brisk pace he takes throughout is refreshing. There is a power and drive in the first movement; the andante is similarly freshly paced with snappy rhythms and bounce but what beauty and nobility in the lovely F major second theme. The climax in this movement is huge when it comes; Schubert’s mastery of counterpoint here is impressive indeed.
The very Viennese dance that forms the scherzo contrasts with the simple trio; all is charmingly portrayed as you would expect by the collected players including some star names in the ensemble. The high-speed vigorous finale is not burdened with repeats (Karajan included them in his EMI remake of 1978), in fact the whole work timing of 46:45 is pretty quick for the time.
Collectors will not want to drop their affections for classics like Furtwängler, Jochum or Böhm who all recorded great Greats for the yellow label but I urge you to hear Karajan in this work in this live version or his contemporary studio account. You may be pleasantly surprised.
February 1969 saw the next Karajan concert at the Philharmonie which included Schoenberg and Tchaikovsky. Karajan had done the Variations for Orchestra of Schoenberg before in 1962 and was to do them again before finally recording the piece for DG in 1974. Of course, the BPO had famously premiered the work in 1928 under Furtwängler to a bewildered and angry public.
The variations are uncompromising in their strict adherence to twelve-tone theory. There is a short introduction then the theme is presented by a solo cello (track 2). There then follows 9 variations (individually tracked here) before a finale. In 21 minutes we have the quintessential masterpiece of twelve-tone serialism. It is hard music to get a hold of for sure and the orchestra as I mentioned spent years learning this repertoire with Karajan. If you have Karajan’s Schoenberg already you don’t need this live version but it is nice to hear in this survey of his live work in the 60s and shows an important part of what he was doing in Berlin at the time. The 4-record set of music by the second Viennese school issued in 1974 was and is a grand achievement. The team’s mission to present Schoenberg, Berg and Webern in studied highly professional readings was a great service to art and should be remembered as such today.
Tchaikovsky 5 came after this short but challenging first half. There are plenty of recorded versions of Karajan in this one of his favourite symphonies; indeed there is another earlier one in this box. This 1969 concert recording made presumably by SFB is strangely variable in quality. I find the first movement less gripping than in the 1965 recording. Everything is immaculately played but there is just a little something missing. The andante is lovely. I think we hear Gerd Seiffert on the horn who is excellent as usual (if not eclipsing Dennis Brain’s contribution to Karajan’s first recording with the Philharmonia). The whole movement though is infused with a richness and plushness of tone that is captivating and wholly appropriate. The build up to the apex at 11:23 is tremendous and heartfelt. When the fate theme then comes back at 11:53, it is crushing and truly momentous. This work and this movement in particular I feel Karajan truly understood to its core.
After the emotions of the slow movement I was disappointed by the sluggish waltz offered next. The finale too underwhelms us at first. Things brighten up though as Karajan begins the first theme with fury and momentum (3:03). Listeners may feel a little let down by the slightly recessed sound picture but the fire of the orchestra still rages and it is an exhilarating performance. The BPO are on top form again and the finish where a newly wrought uplifting version of the fate motto blazes forth is convincingly portrayed with heavy timpani strokes, rampant strings and bold brass attack.
Sonically the last CD is the pick of the box. I think this recording was made by the RIAS station and is in very fine stereo (the other stereo recordings in the box are discs 10,16,17,18,21 and 22). It features a concert given in September 1969 just before Karajan went to Paris to open his tenure there as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris. In between this busy musician and the industrious Berliner Philharmoniker made some important records of Honegger’s Symphony No.3, the Bartók, Strauss’ Oboe Concerto and a disc of Suppé overtures! (Now that’s what I call variety).
Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta was written in 1936, the same year that saw the creation of such diverse works as Rachmaninov’s Symphony No.3, Shostakovich’s No.4 and the premiere of Berg’s Violin Concerto. For me Bartók’s work is a piece of genius and would be my pick had I only one choice from this mid 30s crop of new music. Karajan knew the piece inside-out. The recording he was to make days after this concert was his third. He had first set it down for English Columbia with the Philharmonia in 1949 (it was issued on four 78’s LX 1371-4) and remade it again under the auspices of Walter Legge for EMI in Berlin in 1960.
This live version is one of the jewels of this set. The string ensemble is rich, their playing is sensitive and alive to the music. Accents are crisp and they bring a weight of tone that is immense when required. The opening fugue is haunting with the muted string body ever increasing and depth widening, building intensity to a climax. The descent is calmer but ominous in this expert reading. The fast second movement shows off Karajan’s antiphonal seating layout to brilliant effect, especially in the admirable stereo soundscape we are treated to. The energy created in this movement surpasses all Karajan’s studio versions. The spooky nocturnal world of the adagio is positively indulged and the amazing sonorities relished. The glissandi on the timpani is very nicely done and replicated by the strings in similar mode later. Karajan takes 8:20 as opposed to only 6:40 with the Philharmonia but there is no sense of longueur. It is a study in technicolour orchestration and imagery in sound – wonderful. Bartók’s finale is part dance, part slapstick. Karajan and his players enter fully into the exuberance of it all with aplomb.
After the interval the orchestra reassembled on the stage for a performance of the Eroica. It had been a couple of years since he last performed the work and absence makes the heart grow fonder. This is a very accomplished account indeed and there is so much to admire. Now aged 61, Karajan had been playing the piece for over thirty years and had presented it in concert over fifty times. Listeners might be surprised by the lightness of touch in this performance. Strings dance and the wind chords come across freshly and with prominence. I could not confirm this whilst reviewing the disc but I suspect string numbers are fewer than he used in the studio whilst it sounds like there are more wind players than Beethoven expressly asked for in the score. The question of balance is of course the conductor’s domain, and in this performance to my ears Karajan achieves a very satisfying result. There is a grace and sensitivity to the playing that is markedly different to the famous versions he made for DG before and after. The funeral march has all the grief and fury it ought to have. Karajan understood Beethoven was expressing not only outward, public despair but inner personal more intimate, even tender, feelings of loss, too. This recording is over 55 years old but sounds ageless and can stand with more modern accounts as a great traversal of the epic work.
At various points in my review of the last part of this box I have referenced the fine essay by Peter Uehling in the booklet. He is always honest and often critical of some of these recordings but happily in this last Eroica we at last concur. Mr Uehling writes eloquently of the merits of this Eroica and the journey Karajan and the BPO had travelled to get to this level of mutual understanding.
So, we reach the end of this huge survey of Karajan’s live concerts in Berlin. We have moved from the Furtwängler period where Karajan came to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker by invitation to the dawn of the 70s by which time Karajan had been Chefdirigent for over fifteen years. I have enjoyed immersing myself in this legacy over the last three weeks and found much to challenge the stereotypical image some (not me) have of Karajan’s sound in Berlin. There is much to admire in the box and I hope one day the label may think about a sequel perhaps concentrating on Karajan’s work in the next decade. It is a little unfortunate that there is so little in the box that is new to the discography; indeed, there are several duplications of works in the set itself. These do add nonetheless to our understanding of the music and allow us to hear how the orchestra grew into a piece over the years. What would we give, though, for a chance to hear the orchestra and Karajan doing Britten’s War Requiem in 1964 or Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex in 1956? (He did both in Berlin.)
Kudos to all at the Berliner Philharmoniker label. The remastered sound is consistently fine and the notes and quality of the product itself are all we have come to expect from this source. Prospective buyers will need to dig deep into their wallets to acquire this treasure, but in life you get what you pay for and as they say, shrouds have no pockets!
Philip Harrison
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Contents
SACD 1, Mono:
Concert No. 1
8 September 1953 ꞏ Titania-Palast
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica”
Concert No 2
22 November 1954 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
SACD 2, Mono:
Concert No 3
22 February 1955 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Tristan und Isolde – Prelude and Liebestod
Concert No. 4
21 January 1956 ꞏ Paulus-Gemeinde Zehlendorf
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D minor, K. 466
Wilhelm Kempff, piano
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 “Jupiter”
SACD 3, Mono:
Concert No 5 5
10 December 1956 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Ariadne auf Naxos op. 60
Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874 – 1929)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
SACD 4, Mono:
Concert No. 6
19 February 1957 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100
SACD 5, Mono:
Concert No. 7
25 April 1957 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125
Elisabeth Grümmer, soprano
Marga Höffgen, mezzo-soprano
Ernst Haefliger, tenor
Gottlob Frick, bass
Chor der Sankt Hedwigs-Kathedrale
Karl Forster, chorus master
SACD 6, Mono:
Concert No. 8
25 May 1957 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in C
minor, Op. 37
Glenn Gould, piano
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82
SACD 7, Mono:
Concert No. 9
20 September 1959 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 5, HWV 323
Rolf Liebermann (1910-1999)
Capriccio for Soprano, Violin and Orchestra
Irmgard Seefried, soprano
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, violin
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120
SACD 8, Mono:
Concert No 10
10 October 1961 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Daphnis et Chloé, Orchestral Suite No. 2
Symphonie chorégraphique on a scenario by
Mikhail Fokin
SACD 9, Mono:
Concert No. 11
1 March 1963 ꞏ Hochschule für Musik
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Magnificat in D major, BWV 243
Maria Stader, soprano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Luigi Alva, tenor
Walter Berry, bass
RIAS Kammerchor
Günther Arndt, chorus master
Edith Picht-Axenfeldt, harpsichord
Helmut Schlövogt, oboe d’amore
Fritz Wesenigk, Herbert Rotzoll, Karl Pfeifer,
piccolo trumpets
SACD 10, Stereo:
Concert No. 12
15 October 1963 ꞏ Philharmonie
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125
Gundula Janowitz, soprano
Sieglinde Wagner, mezzo-soprano
Luigi Alva, tenor
Otto Wiener, baritone
Chor der Sankt Hedwigs-Kathedrale, RIAS
Kammerchor
Günther Arndt, chorus master
SACD 11, Mono:
Concert No. 13
5 May 1964 ꞏ Philharmonie
Richard Strauss
Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra in D major
Lothar Koch, oboe
Four Last Songs
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano
SACD 12, Mono:
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40
Concert No 14
25 February 1965 ꞏ Philharmonie
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Symphony No. 8 in C minor (2nd version)
1. & 2. Movement
SACD 13, Mono:
Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 8 in C minor (2nd version)
3. & 4. Movement
SACD 14, Mono:
Concert No 15
23 September 1965 ꞏ Philharmonie
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Divertimento in B flat major, K. 287 “Lodron Serenade No. 2”
Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012)
Aubade for Orchestra
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 “From the New World”
SACD 15, Mono:
Concert No 16
30 December 1965 ꞏ Philharmonie
Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra, Symphonic Poem, Op. 30
Don Quixote, Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character, Op. 35
Pierre Fournier, cello
Giusto Cappone, viola
SACD 16, Stereo:
Concert No. 17
22 October 1967 ꞏ Philharmonie
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for 3 Pianos and Orchestra in F major, K. 242
Jörg Demus, Christoph Eschenbach, Herbert
von Karajan, piano
SACD 17, Stereo:
Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 4 in E flat major “Romantic”
(2nd version)
SACD 18, Stereo:
Concert No. 18
1 January 1968 ꞏ Philharmonie
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125
Gundula Janowitz, soprano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Jess Thomas, tenor
Walter Berry, bass
Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Walter Hagen-Groll, chorus master
SACD 19, Mono:
Concert No. 19
28 September 1968 ꞏ Philharmonie
Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
SACD 20, Mono:
Johannes Brahms
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83
Géza Anda, piano
SACD 21, Stereo:
Concert No. 20
30 September 1968 ꞏ Philharmonie
Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
SACD 22, Stereo:
Concert No. 21
5 January 1969 ꞏ Philharmonie
George Frideric Handel
Concerto grosso in C minor, Op. 6 No. 8 HWV 326
György Ligeti (1923-2006)
Atmosphères
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Symphony No. 8 in C major, D 944 “The Great”
SACD 23, Mono:
Concert No 22
3 February 1969 ꞏ Philharmonie
Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951)
Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
SACD 24, Stereo:
Concert No 23
21 September 1969 ꞏ Philharmonie
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz 106
Ludwig van Beeethoven
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica”
