Beethoven - The Symphonies Boxset / Herbert von Karajan, Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Jess Thomas, Walter Berry, Berlin Philharmoniker

For many lovers of Beethoven's Symphonies, Karajan's 1962 integrated set of the nine (available as a CD box set from DGG) is the best available. For some (but not me), that collection is definitive: individual symphonies may vary in quality of performance, they say, but in toto, as a unified vision of these orchestral masterpieces, there is no finer set. In his later years, with the dawning of the digital era, Karajan re-recorded the Beethoven Nine. I purchased those autumnal efforts as they were released. I found them to be slow, essentially lackluster performances. They were filmed as well, and when this DVD set was initially offered for sale, I feared it contained films of those later, inferior recordings. Thankfully, it does not.These performances date from the late 1960's - early 1970's. In many ways, they may be the best Beethoven recordings Karajan ever made. Those of you familiar with Carlos Kleiber's recordings of the 5th and 7th Symphonies might be interested to know that Karajan's 5th (lasting 30 minutes) and 7th (34 minutes) have a comparable urgency of expression. They are powerful, fleet explorations of these two ubiquitous works. His 5th is almost as fast as Roger Norrington's speed-freak version. It is as if Karajan sensed the future onslaught of period performances and was determined to pre-empt them. The 1st (23 minutes) and 2nd (31 minutes) are Haydnesque Symphonies and Karajan conducts them as such. He gives them a Classical grace with a hint of the Beethovenian power to come. I love Beethoven's even-numbered symphonies; beautifully serene and graceful works that are less frequently played. They strike me as more personal expressions of Beethoven's genius, as if he had nothing to prove but his love for Music. The Berlin Philharmonic are like a thoroughbred horse, capable of instantaneously responding to the slightest touch of the reins. Watching Karajan conduct with eyes closed and only the slightest movement of his body is fascinating and the reason why DVD performances will inevitably replace the CD.The "Eroica" (lasting 48 minutes) is played beautifully; Karajan crafts this structure with intelligence. Though embracing the mystery inherent in this inexplicable masterpiece, his performance flaunts Beethoven's revolutionary clarion call by urgently weaving the strands of fate. This inevitable tension is barely resolved by the repetitive dance-like themes of the final movement. A wonderful performance. The 4th (31 minutes) and 8th (25 minutes) Symphonies are a return to the sound-world of Haydn. Karajan conducts them as if they mean something and not as a mere afterthought; thoroughly enjoyable performances that had me conducting along with him. Thankfully, I was alone and unobserved.The 6th Symphony, the "Pastoral" (lasting 36 minutes), is lovely, lyrical and serene. It evokes exactly what Beethoven wished to portray, the beauty and majesty of nature. Karajan loses himself in this evergreen score. An exquisite and delicate performance that I immediately replayed. The final work, the 9th Symphony (64 minutes) is sung by a masterful quartet of Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Jess Thomas and Walter Berry, all at their peak. All except Thomas are Karajan regulars. Filmed on New Year's, 1968, this is a fleeter, fiercer, more dramatic 9th than Karajan's previously recorded versions. He himself directs the film of this performance, using the camera to emphasize the twists and turns of the work. This is an excellent version of Beethoven's ultimate Symphony.The films of these Symphonies all add to the enjoyment. Artistic self-indulgences are minimized. There are no slap-to-the-forehead, My-God-what-were-they-thinking? moments. The LPCM stereo and DTS 5.1 sound (the best sounding format) are both crystal clear, never betraying the age of these films. The performances are uniformly excellent, making this three DVD set nearly self-recommending. Watching them one can see why Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic were so admired, way back when the world was young.

This set features performances coming about 6 years after Karajan's 1962/1963 Beethoven cycle. That earlier cycle remains, and will likely remain, the definitive set of Beethoven symphonies for me (among over 100 Beethoven symphony recordings I have). Karajan's Beethoven is not "perfect" -- for example, he always skips some repeats that I deem necessary -- but he and the BPO really brought out all the qualities a modern listener thinks ought to be brought out of Beethoven's symphonies.The 9 symphonies recorded here are spread out over 3 DVDs. The visual take on all but the 9th was supposed to be artistic; most of them were directed by a renowned French filmmaker. But the visual qualities are uneven and on the whole unsatisfactory. It's not just Karajan dominates the screen time -- as with most other classical videos, the cameramen always seem to favor just a few angles and just a few select musicians.In terms of musical quality, as I alluded earlier, taken as a whole this is second only to Karajan's earlier cycle. I do like the 3rd symphony on this set a little better, but my friends disagree with me on this. But if you want solid, no, I mean great, Beethoven symphony playing, you won't be disappointed. Obviously, if you don't like the visuals, simply turn off your TV monitor and only listen to the sound.BTW, this set is better than the 1983 "His Legacy" set in both video and audio; that later set is notorious for focusing way too much on Karajan, and the BPO playing is less coherent than here. Abbado's 2001 set is also nice (see my review there), but IMHO Abbado cannot match Karajan in interpretive power or execution (plus the BPO was already at the start of its downward spiral). So, if you want one DVD set of Beethoven's symphonies to own, this is it.

Sonically, this box set is near to superb. Visually, it is a major disappointment, and had I paid closer attention to some of the other reviews I would not have purchased it. To begin with one could be forgiven for assuming that is was produced and directed by Herbert von Karajan's mother. Furthermore it appears to have been staged in an abandoned cement airplane hanger. The images simply do not measure up to the sound of Beethoven's incredible works, and anyone who has seen a live performance of a Beethoven symphony on PBS will be hugely disappointed by these offerings. The only way they can be considered remotely acceptable would be to put a disc in your DVD player and then leave the room, to use them as background music while you attend to your housework.

The music is, of course, sublime: it's Beethoven! I don't find the experience of listening to a DVD without the picture the same as listening to a CD. For one thing, there are long pauses while things are going on on-screen. For another, the track and repeat functions don't work on the DVD (I use the same player). I bought CD's and am going to give this set away, and hope someone else loves it.

In terms of music, this cycle of Beethoven's 9 symphonies recorded in late 60's or early 70s and the 1963's cycle of last century have been regarded as Karajan's best. His last cycle recorded in 1980's could not match his previous 2 cycles.In terms of conducting art, this cycle was the best, far superior than Karajan's last cycle. When I watch his 80's cycle DVD, I only watched an old man struggling on stage barely finishing his job as conductor. What a pity! I haven't seen any DVD of his 60's cycle, Is there any one around?When Karajan conducted in this cycle. His body language says it all. Amazing!

I was very pleased with this version of the Beethoven symphonies. Karajan had the insight to record his conducting on video in the early days. He must have realised that much more is added to the experience in seeing the performance as well as hearing it and he used his artistic judgement to add even more to the overall effect. A real treasure.

I can only reinforce the comments above, however, the arty-farty filming of No. 6 is just annoying, making the vision of St. Herbert of Karajan seem a bit over the top. However, if you close you eyes, as Karajan seemed to permanently do, you will hear truly breathtaking results. I guarantee that if you think you know the symphonies you will hear them anew here.

This set of 9 Beethoven symphonies featuring Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic was made in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when filmed performances of classical music were a new thing. As a pioneering effort it deserves some credit, but judged against the standard of today's concerts on film, it is disappointing. The musical performances are solid, as one would expect from Karajan and Berlin, and the sound quality is good, but that's not what we buy a DVD for: one can hear that more effectively on CD. What one expects from a DVD is an enjoyable visual experience. In that respect, as other reviewers have pointed out, this set is a remarkable testimony of Karajan's gigantic ego. The videography is lamentably bad, almost laughable in places. The camera is on Karajan about 75% of the time and during that entire time, except for the last movement of 9, he has his eyes closed, so you spend hours and hours watching Karajan's face and hands. About 15% of the time we see the first violins, which are also in the background in some of the Karajan shots. The rest of the orchestra gets the remaining 10% of screen time and most of that is shared by the cellos and woodwinds. The brass and percussion are particularly short-changed, even when they have important solos: we get split-second close-ups of timpani sticks going up and down but never the timpanist; the faces of trumpet and horn players are similarly invisible and many of the shots of them are clearly artificial, with the fingering not matching the music, and feature only blurry close-ups of the instruments, almost never the players. Screen time for the orchestra does increase somewhat as the series progresses from 1 to 9, but the whole approach is grievously insulting to the musicians, presumably reflecting Karajan's view that he, not the musicians, is the real source of the music: he draws it out of them with his hands and facial gestures, at which we are supposed to marvel and swoon. If you want an enjoyable visual experience of the Beethoven symphonies that focuses on the musicians who actually play the music rather than on an egomaniacal conductor, you will be much better off with the the more recent sets featuring Michael Gielen and the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, or Christian Thielemann with the Vienna Philharmonic; both are superb from every point of view.

Llevaba ya años siguiendo esta caja desde que la vi hace tiempo por unos 60 euros la primera vez, buscando una excusa para autoregalarmela. Así que cuando la vi por unos 20 euros aquí en Amazon ya no pude resistir más. Y reconozco que he sido un tacaño por esperar tanto, porque la caja vale eso y más. Todo en esta caja es de una grandísima calidad: el director, los intérpretes, la presentación y, por supuesto, la OBRA. Todo el mundo debería de tener una versión de las nueve sinfonías en algún tipo de formato.No voy a entrar a valorar si la interpretación de Karajan es mejor o peor que cualquier otra. A pesar de llevar escuchando música toda mi vida y tener las sinfonías de Beethoven metidas en la cabeza desde que era un crío, no me veo con conocimientos técnicos suficientes para valorar si ésta es mejor o peor que alguna otra reiterpretación de las sinfonías ejecutadas por algún otro director o incluso el mismo Karajan en otras grabaciones. Pero a lo que sí que me atrevo es a juzgar el aspecto técnico de esta grabación, sobre todo por que es muy fácil: 10 sobre 10.La grabación es una especie de "falso directo". Aunque aparece público en algunas partes del DVD, la mayoría de las tomas están echas desde unos ángulos imposibles en la grabación de un concierto real, acercándose más a una película o un documental que a un concierto en directo propiamente dicho. La variedad de las tomas es muy amplia, usando incluso tomas cenitales o algunas en las que la cámara parece estar a apenas unos centímetros de los instrumentos. Y metiendo efectos de todo tipo, imágenes superpuestas, fundidos entre dos imágenes, cambios de color a blanco y negro y otra vez vuelta al color... En algunos momentos la orquesta y el coro incluso parecen estar posando más que interpretando. Pero todo ello siempre al servicio de la música, para realzar o enfatizar los diversos pasajes de las sinfonías y por supuesto contando con el omnipresente Karajan como figura principal.A pesar de ser una grabación antigua en un formato DVD, lejano a los nuevos formatos de alta calidad que hay hoy en día, la imagen es espectacular, con un equilibrio de brillo y contrastre realmente bueno. Tan sólo el color parece algo más apagado y además parece ser algo hecho a propósito para adecuarse al contenido de la obra. Por ponerle alguna pega, el hecho de estar grabado en formato 4:3, pero mejor eso que crear un 16:9 artifical y cortar alguna parte de las escenas del vídeo.El sonido es espectacular, escuchándose toda la amplitud de frecuencias con una nitidez increíble, desde los más graves a los agudos más altos. Contiene dos bandas de audio, una en PCM estéreo y otra en DTS 5.1, que para mí es lo máximo que un DVD puede contener en ese aspecto. Puede que se eche de menos una banda en Dolby multicanal por ampliar la compatibilidad de formatos con otros equipos, pero no me imagino que a estas alturas un melómano que se precie no tenga un equipo capaz de reproducir DTS.El DTS no es demasiado artificioso. Los altavoces traseros apenas se dejan notar en las pocas partes en las que el público aparece y aplaude. Y la situación del sonido en la sala se encuentra bastante lejana del oyente, más pegada al televisor que en la mitad de la habitación como ocurre con otras grabaciones. El "surround" se ha utilizado sobre todo para ensanchar la situación de la orquesta y así facilitar la situación espacial de las distintas secciones.A pesar de venir un apartado de bonus, éstos se limitan a algún trailer de los mismos DVDs o adelantos de otras grabaciones. La presentación son tres DVDs, cada uno con tres sinfonías, en cajas de plástico individuales ("amarays") y cada uno con un folleto de unas pocas páginas con fotos y una pequeña reseña en inglés, alemán y francés. Todo ello contenido en una caja de cartón en color de gran calidad con una apertura frontal para poder sacar los amarays sin problemas.En definitiva, una oportunidad de oro para hacerse con esta obra imprescindible en una edición inigualable, sobre todo mientras Amazon la siga manteniendo alrededor de los 20 euros.

Con le sinfonie di Beethoven e la direzione di Von Karajan, difficile dare meno di 5 stelle, ma la regia e il montaggio in alcuni casi ci hanno messo le mani. La 6^ è meglio ascoltarla senza vederla. Il regista avrebbe dovuto sapere che in questi casi egli viene dopo compositore, direttore e orchestra e limitarsi quindi a riprese semplici e non ad artifizi di montaggio e riprese dall'alto con ombre, sfocature di nessuna utilità. I primi piani alla Sergio Leone lasciamoli al cinema. Vedremo le altre sinfonie. Ovviamente è solo un pare personale, magari qualcuno troverà la regia un valore aggiunto. Per il resto buona la resa musicale considerata l'età delle registrazioni. Comunque un cofanetto che non può mancare in una collezione che si rispetti.