Wes Crone wrote:

>I suppose I could take this opportunity to ask a question that's been on
>my mind for years now.  I would appreciate to hear everyone's input on this
>one.  A couple of years back I purchased Mahler's symphony number 5 with
>Herbert von Karajan at the podium.  I, personally, loved the performance.
>I have come to really enjoy Karajan's performances of Brahms and Mahler.

On the subject of Karajan in Mahler, I've always been of the opinion that
the man should never have been allowed within a hunddred miles of a Mahler
Symphony and I counted it a blessing that he didn't allow _himself_ within
a hundred miles of one until late in his life when probably commercial
considerations took over and he saw how much money there was to be made
from recording him.  His Fifth is, for me, the most awful example.  To hear
this wonderful music subjected to the Karajan treatment (smooth lines, soft
edges, treacly slow movement, strings like the surface of coffee tables)
just turns my stomach over.  There is so much more LIFE in this music, so
much more colour, so much more doubt and terror and joy, than you could
ever imagine Karajan even being aware of.  In his Mahler Ninth the analogy
I always use is of an immensely tall skyscraper, all reinforced concerete
and plate glass as seen at night, every window lit up by flourescent lamps
and not a soul in the place.

A friend whose opinion on Mahler I regard higher than anyone else's put it
best when he said of Karajan: "I should be grateful to him for showing me
the difference between beautiful music and music played beautifully."

>... recently I have come to the conclusion that Karajan's conducting is
>despised by many people for some reason.  I would like to hear from those
>who dislike him and/or his conducting.

Two very different questions.  The reasons why people dislike Karajan
personally has to do with his life and politics.  However, there are plenty
of musicians whose lives were far from admirable that we nevertheless
admire in their music making and I don't think this is the place to start
the usual discussion about Karajan's Nazi links or his ruthless ambition.
So far as his music is concerned I think that there was a time when Karajan
was making some of the finest recordings of certain works ever made.  His
years with EMI in the 1950s and then with DG in the 1960s are filled with
"must-haves".  It's just that, as he became older, he became more and more
obsessed with seeking absolute perfection, both of ensemble but also of
sound, and the kind of sound that itself was obsessed with smoothness and
beauty of tone.  In short, I think he just became boring and then, as time
went on further, even more boring.  The life just seemed to go out of his
music making and became an empty vessel.

Tony Duggan,  England.
My (developing) Mahler recordings survey is at:
http://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/Mahler/Mahler1.htm