9 Symphonien

This boxed set consists of Karajan's 1977 cycle of Beethoven symphonies, plus some orchestral fillers dating back to 1966 and 1970. It is the symphonies that should concern us here.

In his essay packaged with the discs, the noted British critic Richard Osborne sets out that it was Karajan's four

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separate Beethoven cycles that lay at the heart of his success as an interpreter of the Austro-German orchestral tradition. (This is the second such cycle, the first having been recorded with the Berliners in 1961-62.) Certainly this is a persuading argument, as for the most part these are textbook performances. There is only one point where I part from that analysis, and that, amazingly, is the final movement of the Ninth, the 'Ode to Joy'. I have listened and re-listened to this, and I cannot escape from the strange impression that to me, it sounds as though it is a piece that has been put under an orchestral microscope. Individual phrases from different instruments emerge from the whole all the way through this performance; whether this is Karajan's direction or the doing of the recording producer, Michel Glotz. or the balance engineer, Günther Hermanns, I cannot say. The overall effect, to me, is fussy and over-analytical, as if Karajan is saying "Here is the pinnacle of German musical art, and now I am going to dissect it". This strikes me as very odd, but it also seems not unlike Karajan; indeed, I have come across it in other recordings of other composers' works.

I have heard others compare Karajan recordings to Mercedes-Benz cars - superbly engineered driving machines - and the analogy may apply here. Germanic engineering is world-famous; but sometimes, Germans over-engineer something, as much for the love of the engineering as anything else. The final movement of the Beethoven 9th in this set strikes me as just that - over-engineered, taken apart and put back together and explained in minute detail so we can all marvel at the technical ingenuity. But sometimes, we just want to drive the car; sometimes, we just want to listen to the music; and I find it difficult with this interpretation.

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