Jochum - Complete Recordings on DG, Vol. 1 Orchestral Works

Eugen Jochum was for many years overshadowed by the more famous conductors of his era. The period featured such renowned orchestra leaders as Karajan, Bernstein, Bohm, Klemperer, Solti, Giulini and others who enjoyed the spotlight and the glamour of conducting major orchestras while gathering the attention and the percs that accompany the allure of fame. Eugen Jochum labored in relative obscurity, much like another superb conductor of the era: Rafael Kubelik. These so-called second-tier conductors were hardly unknown, merely under-appreciated. Jochum possessed a mastery of the standard Germanic repertoire that could stand comparison with anyone. This 42 disc limited edition collection, featuring all of the orchestral works that Jochum recorded for DGG between 1949 and 1975, contains some of the finest recordings ever made of key symphonies by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Bruckner. It also features superb recordings of several tone poems by Richard Strauss. And as icing on the cake, the set contains Jochum's transcendent 1963 recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, featuring a riveting, ultimately heartbreaking performance by mezzo-soprano Nan Merriman and a powerful, probing performance by tenor Ernst Haefliger: both singers beautifully accompanied by the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Jochum's Das Lied is one of the finest recordings ever made of this great symphonic song-cycle. Less romantic than Bruno Walter's version, less portentous than Klemperor's renowned recording, it features the same overwhelming drama of the journey into nothingness listeners experience when listening to Schubert's Winterreise, the comparably great song-cycle.Jochum's wonderful recordings of the Haydn London Symphonies have been acclaimed since their release in the early 1970s. They are performed on modern instruments but the London Philharmonic Orchestra is appropriately reduced in size. Orchestral tempos are swift and lithe and there is a joyfulness in their playing of Haydn that is absolutely infectious. I cannot listen to these performances without smiling broadly. Jochum's Beethoven symphonies are muscular, even plebeian at times, yet they retain their heroic nature without any romantic exaggeration. Jochum finds similar qualities in his performances of the Schubert and Brahms symphonies. He accentuates their melancholy beauty and depth without weakening his performance by overemphasizing their inherent dramatic power. Jochum's Mozart is recorded in mono and beautifully performed by the superb Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks with exceptional skill. These performances recognize Mozart's nascent Romanticism, and his music's darker colors and operatic qualities, which are so different from Haydn's almost Olympian detachment and Classical perfection.Especially renowned are Jochum's monumental recordings of the Bruckner symphonies, mostly dating from the mid-sixties and usually performed using the Nowak versions. The Berlin Philharmonic and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks - led by an inspired Eugen Jochum - interpret Bruckner as a heaven-storming mystic whose organ textured orchestral wall-of-sound is appropriately powerful or delicate as the music demands. These are brilliant performances, some of the finest ever made of this complex yet insecure composer whose symphonic works are the capstone of the great 19th century Germanic orchestral tradition. Jochum brings a similarly vast and profound vision to his performances of the Strauss tone-poems. The Bruckner and Strauss performances are monumental recordings whose vast scale never preclude Jochum's use of variable dynamics and a deft, light touch when they are needed.The sound of these recordings range from a solid and rich mono in the earliest works to a clear-textured, bright sounding stereo in the later ones. Their sound is variable due to their disparity in age but generally represents the best of their era. Their recording quality is comparable to DGG's The Originals series, which utilizes their proprietary original-image bit-processing technique meant to recall the sound of vinyl recordings. This suggests that at least some of these recordings have been re-mastered. The box features a cover that closes from the side and both seem sturdy. The box is relatively small and light and can be carried in one hand. The 64-page booklet that accompanies the set is rudimentary but provides the most necessary discographic information but little else. The discs themselves are housed in cardboard sleeves that feature the original lp covers but not the original liner notes. This is the collection's greatest failing, in my opinion, since there is precious little contextual information provided for these important recordings. This is the first volume of a Jochum retrospective and all-in-all does a good job of celebrating this superb conductor. As is usual with limited edition releases, if you intend to purchase this set it is best not to wait too long. Collections as significant as this tend to go out-of-print rather quickly and soon become expensive third-party dealer items. This is an exemplary box set and is strongly recommended for its celebration of an excellent if under-appreciated conductor.

Jochum was another of the so-called second tier conductors of the postWWII decades. DG chose the more media-genic HvK and the rest is history..

I know the conductor fairly well, but to listen to the Bruckner cycle from end to end is mind-blowing; a very nice collection that empowers you to do the strangest things, like listen non-stop for hours...

Old school conductor with classic interpretations of the classics. On a par with Toscanini.

I won't comment on the performances or the recording since I know these recordings well, and the sound is good or better for its time in either mono and stereo and the performances are top notch. But all of these recordings have been issued before, and anyone who has been paying attention probably already has most of them.Anyone who expected "original covers" is going to be quite disgusted. Instead of replicating the 6 Haydn London Symphony covers, they put them on 4 discs and give you the boring white box cover from ca. 1976. Similarly, for the Bruckner symphonies, instead of providing miniatures of elegant architectural drawings of the original releases from the '60's, they provide NINE copies of the same boring black box cover from the late '70s-early '80's. I can't speak of the original Beethoven incarnations, but here too we just get five copies of the box.CLARIFICATION: If anyone doesn't have these Jochum recordings, this is as good as you can do now, although virtually all have been reissued on CD before. My criticism and low rating entirely concerns the "Original Jackets" which, concerning at least half the recordings in this box, is a misnomer.For example, the Fricsay, Maazel, and Karajan boxes have all been meticulous in reproducing not only the original cover art, but also in some cases the original text on the back. This box set however only has about half the original covers, the rest are multiple reproductions of box set reissues from the '70's or '80's, and there are no back cover reproductions at all. This has to be compared (unfavorably) with the three aforementioned box sets as well as numerous box sets (Reiner, Munch, Monteux, Rubinstein, etc.) which have gone out of their way to not only provide the original covers, but oftentimes even reproductions of reissue covers in the booklet. This set, on the other hand, is closer to the Kubelik and Boehm reissue sets from the past two years: and that's fine, just don't call it "Original Jackets."It's a pity that DG can't go to the trouble to treat all of its conductors with similar respect and attention to detail. The original Jochum, Boehm, Kubelik, Martinon, etc. issues were frequently stunning; if we are going to follow current trends, let's reissue them in the format in which we originally discovered them.

Having just listened through to the second volume of Jochum, I realized I never reviewed the first, bought four years ago. So, here's that!I grew up listening to Jochum. It started with my parents, who played a lot of his works on the old console stereo (not really stereo) in the living room, but I got to know the works and Jochum's timing from that young experience. As I started building my own LP collection in the late 70s and early 80s, a lot were by Jochum simply because of excellent reviews in Penguin Guide (sorely missed) and references from others whose tastes I trusted. Buying my first big box, Beethoven's complete symphonies, was a milestone in my early days (it was expensive, costing me a whole week's pay!) and it had to be Jochum since I loved his 7th. (I fell in love with his adagio from the 7th thanks to the movie Zardoz...a dumb movie, but with a perfectly paced movement by Jochum as part of the soundtrack; that track has never left my memory and is the comparison of all other 7ths since.)So, this box set of 42 CDs has all the orchestral recordings of Jochum released on DG (spanning 1945 to 1979, basically). There's a ton of stand-out recordings here. Depending on your taste, not just Beethoven and Mozart, but Bruckner, Elgar, Mahler, and Haydn are all references by which other interpretations are judged. Listening back to these Jochum discs after focusing on more recent conductors for the last decade or so was a bit eye-opening for me. I had forgotten how clear and unembellished these interpretations are: nothing ostentatious of flashy, just beautiful music interpreted by a man who could envision the work and its time perfectly. Seriously, some of these recordings remain standards for a reason: they are excellent.The recordings are DG, hence the engineering is as good as it could get at the time. These recordings do sound a little dated (especially the early recordings), but that's to be expected. The earlier works are mono, but they still sound solid. Comparing some of these CDs to the LPs in my collection, I believe some of these works have been remastered (although not all).For those who remember Jochum, this box is a loving tribute to his mastery of the repertoire. For those unfamiliar with him, this is a great way to get to know one of the outstanding (and I think underrated) conductors of the mid and late 1900s. A few of these discs will stay with you as reference recordings.

Muy buena selección

A fabulous collection of Eugen Jochum's complete Deutsche Gramaphone orchestral recordings. Many great performances in fine masterings. The seller was quick and the set exceeded condition description.

Diese Jochum CD-Box ist ein Schatzkästchen im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes. Im umfangreichen Booklet zur Box wird Meister Jochum als "lächelnder Visionär" beschrieben. Was da visionär in seinen Interpretationen zum Ausdruck kommt, wird noch viel zu wenig realisiert. Wer kennt zum Beispiel Jochums Einspielung von Beethovens frühen Klavierkonzerten mit Pollini und den Wiener Philharmonikern? Auch seine legendäre Einspielung der Brahms-Klavierkonzerte mit Gilels ist vielen nicht bekannt. Seine Interpretation der Jupiter-Sinfonie Mozarts oder der "Unvollendeten Schuberts" mit dem Boston Symphonie Orchestra ist ebenso weithin "unerhört". Die CD-Box enthüllt uns etwas von diesen im allgemeinen ungeahnten Schätzen des großen Dirigenten. Bleibt zu hoffen, dass die Deutsche Grammophon schon bald eine zweite Box mit den Opern und Vokalwerken veröffentlicht, die mit Jochum eingespielt wurden. Gut, dass es eine Eugen-Jochum-Stiftung gibt, die an das große Erbe des Meisters erinnert. Musik-Meditationen im weltgrößten Barockkloster Ottobeuren unterstützen diese Aufgabe. Die CDs der Jochum-Box stehen dabei im Zentrum. "Ehrt Eure deutschen Meister" singt Dietrich Fischer Dieskau als Hans Sachs in Jochums Einspielung der Wagneroper "Die Meistersinger".Das Schatzkästlein der Jochum-Box trägt zu einer solchen Ehrung bei. Sie ist für mich eine "Fünf-Sterne-Box", denn sie beschenkt uns im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes mit musikalischen Sternstunden.Michael Swiatkowski, 1.6.2017, heutiges Foto von mir vor dem Gedenkstein "Ehrt Eure Deutschen Meister" in der Nibelungenhalle am Drachenfelsen in Königswinter

Smashing bargain