Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Herbert von Karajan, Lucerne Festival Orchestra :: Mozart: Piano Concertos 21 & 24

Big performances compromised by sound problems

E. Weed | Houston, TX | 04/10/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I've not in the past been a great fan of von Karajan, but was interested in EMI's Karajan Collection because it includes some of his late 40's and early 50's performances, which I thought might be a good way to approach an appreciation of his art. These piano concertos were recorded in 1950 (the Lipatti, which is a live performance) and 1953 (studio). The Lipatti has particular historic significance, as it was one of Lipatti's last recordings before he died at the age of 33 from leukemia. (He was taking a new treatment at the time, with cortisone, that temporarily provided him relief from the wasting effects of the disease.)



Regretably, the sound of the live performance is rather poor. There seems to be a level of distortion in the master tapes that cannot be cured by tone controls (for those that have them). Lipatti's playing is amazingly energized and full of grace--this is certainly worth hearing--but would not be a performance to which most of us would return often. (And I say this as someone who is relatively accustomed to the limitations of historic recordings.)



The sound in the Gieseking is disappointingly shrill in the louder passages, and sorely lacking in bottom end. While the performance seems basically quite good (in the "big event" style of playing Mozart piano concertos that seems less popular these days), this, again, is not likely to be a performance to which one would return often.



I've heard better sound from the early 50's (and worse, to be fair). I'm somewhat surprised that EMI couldn't have done a better job with the studio performance, but so it goes. Interesting, but be warned."