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.

I guess I fall into that category...

>I have come to really enjoy Karajan's performances of Brahms and Mahler.
>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.

Well, I doubt that there's much dissent on the question of the man himself
- there's no shortage of anecdotes regarding Herr Musikdirektor's tyrrany
at the helm of the BPO and elsewhere - but his conducting is a different
matter.  My experience with Karajan is fairly limited, but I tend to grow
dissatisfied with his performances after repeated scrutiny.  I have an
older Mozart Requiem (*not* the one on the Karajan Gold series, which I
haven't heard) conducted by him which I initially found tolerable, but grew
to dislike.  It suffers from outright incompetence in several places: the
intonation of the choir is particularly poor and ensemble ragged.  It also
didn't help that one of my roommates last year regarded the Requiem as
"Studyin' Music" and I was subjected to the recording several times a week!

I also have a recording of his of Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht which is
technically immaculate and quite soulful but which seems to gloss over a
great deal of the intricate part writing -- much of which I didn't even
know was there until I heard it performed in the original version for
string sextet!

I suppose that word, "gloss", comes to my mind most often when I think of
Karajan.  He seems to have been more concerned with getting that beautiful
Karajan sound than with exploring any idiosynchrasies that exist in a
particular piece.  This problem was apparently more exaggerated during his
later years, and I've heard that many of his early recordings (especially
those of R.  Strauss) are exemplary.  I'm going to try to get his
"Rosenkavilier" when I finally get around to the piece, but that's probably
it.

Regarding your comments about Brahms and Mahler: I got a friend the four
Brahms symphonies performed by Karajan as a birthday present - largely
because of cost considerations among complete sets, I must admit (*blush*).
Recently we had a brief discussion about Karajan, and when I made the same
assertion as in the last paragraph, he agreed and said, "when I put on the
fourth symphony, I listened to the first notes and just thought to myself,
'this is boring!'" Don't know what that proves (probably nothing), except
that my friend is an ungrateful lout!

And in the case of Mahler...my first recording of Mahler's 9th was with
Karajan.  The last movement was prettily done, alright, but I eventually
gave the recording to a friend and moved on to Bernstein, Barbirolli,
Klemperer, and Horenstein in search of something more in the first three
movements.  I don't think I succeeded in converting that friend into a
Mahler fanatic with that Karajan recording, however...

I'm afraid my comments are entirely too subjective to be of much use to
you, Wes, but I thought I would throw them out there anyway, just for the
heck of it.

>I don't think I am a lesser person because I like it.

And don't let anyone convince you to the contrary!

-everitt clark
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