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'All that Herbert von Karajan' Beethoven symphonies

Dave H.

Revolutionary relativist
I spotted this on Qobuz - all 9 symphonies for under 5 quid. Seemed worth a go.

Roon seems not to recognise the whole thing, though it does seem to know that all of the symphonies are with the Philharmonia orchestra (Qobuz implies that the Berliner Phil is in there somewhere too, but it seems not). But apparently it doesn't know where or when they were recorded.

I'm waiting until herself goes out to work this evening before having a listen.

But in the meantime I wondered, does anyone know anything about the set/performances/Karajan with Beethoven in general? I'm rather a novice.
 
The Karajan Philharmonia Beethoven symphonies were from the early fifties, some of them were among the earliest LPs EMI recorded . The seventh, recorded in 1951 is my go to version though I am somewhat biased as it is the version I heard from my childhood, though we didn`t know it was Karajan at the time.

The performances are excellent but they are mono and the early LP quality has some drawbacks. That price is very good though.

I haven`t heard all the later Beethoven cycles he recorded,however the sixties and seventies symphonies I have heard are also excellent and with far better sound quality.

The eighties cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic I find poor in comparison, I think he was too old and ill to do the project justice and the early DG digital recording probably didn`t help.

If you only want the 5th and 7th Kleiber is excellent. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000001GPX/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

All just my opinion of course.
 
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That’s great, thanks.

Strangely, it turns out that all of the files are stereo. So I’m unsure whether Roon has got the performances wrong, and they’re actually later recordings, or whether they’re the Philharmonia mono recordings, just in stereo files.

Will try to figure it out later this evening...
 
And as luck would have it, it turns out that I have a high res version of the Kleiber recordings, too. Didn’t even know I had that, wonder where it came from!

That’ll be an interesting comparison.
 
It`s possible some of the Philharmonia mono recordings were re-issued with the infamous EMI Stereo reprocessing - if so, best avoided.
 
Ah, is that what it is - I did wonder why there seem to be numerous versions of the 50s recordings, including this off-brand looking affair. Copyright shenanigans would explain it.

Turns out it is a stereo-isation, so probably derived from the aforementioned EMI version. And the sound isn’t all that special, especially compared to the 60s recordings (which seem to sound a bit better than the later efforts to me - thanks, Tidal).

Still, it was a nice little learning experience.
 
The Karajan Philharmonia Beethoven symphonies were from the early fifties, some of them were among the earliest LPs EMI recorded . The seventh, recorded in 1951 is my go to version though I am somewhat biased as it is the version I heard from my childhood, though we didn`t know it was Karajan at the time.

The performances are excellent but they are mono and the early LP quality has some drawbacks. That price is very good though.

I haven`t heard all the later Beethoven cycles he recorded,however the sixties and seventies symphonies I have heard are also excellent and with far better sound quality.

The eighties cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic I find poor in comparison, I think he was too old and ill to do the project justice and the early DG digital recording probably didn`t help.

If you only want the 5th and 7th Kleiber is excellent. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000001GPX/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

All just my opinion of course.
For me, Karajan/ Beethoven, the 1963 Jesus-Christus-Kirche set is the one. It begins and ends there.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
This Anniversary box comes with a Blu-Ray with all symphonies in high-res. I have it and its very good. The CDs are marginally fuller sounding than the prior much cheaper issue, and the packaging far nicer.
 
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This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
What format would the blu Ray bonus disc output to a dac? I’ve always been confused about Blu-ray audio. The SACD versions are top notch btw.
 


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