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Brahms Symphonies conducted by Karajan

One of the boxed sets I recently received was the set of Brahms symphonies as conducted by Karajan with the BPO, from the early 60s (tulips on the label). Very nice set and I was happy to see this, given a more elevated regard for Karajan's recordings that I have been experiencing over the last few years.

But I have to say that I find this set disappointing, in the main. Karajan seems intent on re-creating the Brahms symphonies as really "big" -overinflated one might say, which I think is to the disadvantage of the scoring - the sound strikes me as very thick. He also seems to be intent on wringing the last element of romantic juice out of these, with quite a few tempo fluctuations and rhetorical gestures. Surprising given his more classical bent for the nearly contemporaneous Beethoven symphony recordings.

While I haven't collected endless sets of Brahms symphonies, I can think of two I like better - the Walter stereo set on Columbia and the early Abbado set, using a different orchestra for each symphony, also on DG. Some have praised the Sanderling Eurodisc set to the skies, but I find it too slow.


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Topic - Brahms Symphonies conducted by Karajan - TGR 16:02:03 09/19/16 (13)

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