Melanie P. from COPPERAS COVE, TX Reviewed on 8/7/2006...
Includes Egmont Overture. Classic von Karjan from 1986. Full program booklet English/Deutsch/Francais/ Italiano included.
CD Reviews
Disappointed...back to Szell
Darryl Roberson | Dallas, Texas | 11/19/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I was impressed with what the individuals below had to say about this CD, so I purchased it. Let me come right out and say it was a major disappointment. Karajan has made great recordings; this is not one of them. The Penguin Guide states the sound is restricted and the ensemble is not "polished". It is exactly right. I haven't heard Karajan's earlier versions, but they must be better.After listening to the first two movements I popped my Szell/Cleveland disc back in and was shocked at the distinction. The sharp rhythms, tight ensemble, and crystal-clear recording immediately jumped out at me. Szell's selection of tempi fit hand-in-glove with his architectural mastery of this piece. Sometimes you don't know what you have until you take a diversion. If you prefer a more modern recording, try Dohnanyi's Cleveland recording on Telarc. The sound is much better than on the Karajan, as is the playing. As for me, I'm going back to the reference for the Eroica--Szell/Cleveland."
Buy this CD! It's surprising!
09/14/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This recording is surprising in it's musical quality even for Karajan, who produced the best recordings of classical music as a general procedure. transcending beyond a "great" recording, which displays the depth and tension and power of the music, Karajan offers here originality, and power beyond any measures. In very few recordings the orchestra's palying is so vivid, sharp, and in fact plain wild, in the good sense of the word. Karajan displays here a level of energy rarly found in classical music's recordings, particularly in the Egmont overture. Although in general the 1984 cycle of the Beethoven sypmohnies recordings is not as good as the 1977 cycle, or the 1962 cycle - this recording is an exception, and surpases all the recordings of this symphony done before this one. The recording of the Egmont overture is explosive in it's energy, creating the effect of general surprise: How can anything be so good? Also highly recommended is the recording of the 8th Beethoven sypmohny, of the same recording cycle, particularly the recordings of the 3 overtures that come with it!"
Music Making of a High Order! Possibly the Best Digital Ero
dv_forever | Michigan, USA | 12/17/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The architectural grandeur and vast scope of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony will always be a tough hurdle for the less initiated Beethoven fan. A fan who perhaps loves Beethoven's 5th and the last movement of the 9th symphony, the moonlight sonata and the violin concerto but a fan who just can't grasp the density of musical thought that is unleashed in this complex superstructure. How bewildering this work must have been to it's first audencies? I remember years ago, listening to the Eroica for the first time in my life, those grinding, lacerating dissonances in the heart of the development section and asking myself, why did he compose that? Haha indeed, it's nothing that Haydn or Mozart, Bach or Handel would have done. This is music of a singular voice, the music of a great liberator of the arts, Ludwig van Beethoven! The first movement begins with those "whiplashes of sound" as Leonard Bernstein called them and it leads us to some very basic thematic material which is then processed into a gargantuan edifice of sound and fury. Beethoven along with Bach are the two most immense architects in musical history. Here Beethoven gives Bach a run for his money. The funeral march confirms this work as not only one of great heroism, but also great tragedy. The scherzo is terrific, something that even contemporaries could appreciated back in the day, however the grandiose finale, a set of variations on a familiar Beethoven theme takes the cake, a whirlwind of energy that audiences found incomprehensible at the time of it's creation.
This performance of the Eroica is one of the best I've ever heard. It's probably Karajan's greatest rendition of this work ever. That puts him in the company of Klemperer's monumental reading from 1961 and Furtwangler's wartime recording. George Szell also has a great version but Szell's performance doesn't have the gravitas of Karajan in the funeral march. Bernstein recorded a famous version in the 60's with NYPO but the sound on that one sucks.
The sound on this Karajan version is quite good without being absolutely top of the line. The Karajan Gold remastering is a big impovement from the previous issue, the high frequencies are fierce at times, but the sound is better than most of the other famous Eroica recordings, it's just a shame it's not state of the art. On the other hand, check out that cool cover! Old grandpa Karajan still strutting like he's the hero of the Eroica! Suffice to say, the performance is quite deep, the first movement explosive, tempos fast but not breathless like the period instrument performers, the climaxes are towering! The funeral march is one of the most dramatic ever, the scherzo is very well done, the finale succeeds with monumental authority. The Egmont overture is very powerful too, but here I would have liked more bass in the recording.
My estimation of this record is quite high as it demolishes most other renditions of this second greatest symphony in history. The greatest symphony is obviously the Beethoven 9th, but what's in third place then? Brahms' 1st, Beethoven's 5th, hmmm...
Karajan's digital cycle, from which this Eroica springs is to be generally avoided. But it's this Eroica and also a CD of the 8th Symphony along with 3 overtures that should be snatched up by Beethoven enthusiasts, they are truly exceptions to the rule."
Wham! Pow!
dv_forever | 08/11/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a wall-banging, swashbuckling, whiz-bang rendition of what is quite possibly the greatest symphony ever written. Though one could go on and on about what makes this recording so riveting, the first thing that comes to mind is the fast tempo taken by von Karajan in the first movement, much faster than that taken by Furtwangler (with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1952). Though a slower tempo allowed Furtwangler time to fully enunciate every "word" in the tone poems he interpreted, the faster tempo is more appropriate for this work because it lends credibility to the fast-paced urgency, devil-may-care drivenness, and action, action, action which are at the very essence of this symphony. As just one example of how successfully this is brought off, the closing moments of the first movement bring to mind images of the Tricolor being raised triumphantly over the highest point of the battlefield at Austerlitz, bombs still bursting in the air! Of equal interest is the suggestion that this performance brings to what the four notes of the "Fate" motif (more famously associated with one of the other symphonies but suggested here also) represent. At the emotional breaking point of the second movement (Marcia Funebre, Adagio Assai, bars 151-152), the four notes seem to represent either (1) the hammer blows driving the last nail into the lid of the coffin of the heroic figure whose funeral we are witnessing; or (2) a mourner bringing his or her hands down repeatedly on the lid of the coffin immediately after it is eternally sealed, in an expression of inconsolable and uncontrollable grief. Very intense. All in all, and with apologies to devotees of Master Furtwangler (whom I assure you I hold in the utmost regard), I have to say it is Master Herbert who wins this particular round of their immortal rivalry."
The orchestral playing is great
Tahseen Nakavi | Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India | 02/09/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This performance of the Eroica stands out with a power packed playing by the Berliners. The acoustics are superb. The oboists and the french horns stand out in all the movements and the horns especially in the trio section of the scherzo. Otto Klemperer has taken the Marcia Funebre- Adagio Assai better. The best performance to date is by Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic."
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1
Melanie P. from COPPERAS COVE, TX 
