Bad recordings by famous conductors-karajan's nielsen 4th.

[keith]

I love Karajan's Nielsen 4. It is wonderfully played, and it maintains its
excitement right to the last note. No other modern recording comes close except
Bryden Thomsons, and the closest is Grondahl's old recording. Blomstedt's
recording is acclaimed far and wide, but to me he loses his grip at the end of
the final movement and the climax is a whimper rather than a bang. Without a
big finish all the good work that went before is wasted. Karajan had his faults
but this is not one of them.
Keith Douglas.

[David Hurwitz]

Karajan's Nielsen Fourth is one of the very worst available. It moves at a
crawl, under tempo almost throughout. The recording is digital glare at its
very worst. The finale features on set of timpani, off mike, barely audible,
and horribly out of tune. The brass playing at the climaxes is coarse and
sloppy--shocking for this orchestra. There have been many fine recordings of
this symphony, including Gibson (Chandos), Martinon/Chicago (RCA), and
Schmidt (Unicorn)--but Karajan's is truly terrible in every respect. An
abomination.
--
David Hurwitz
Executive Editor
http://www.classicstoday.com
dhur...@classicstoday.com

"keith" <kdth...@aol.comnojunk> wrote in message
news:20000209161053...@nso-fg.aol.com...

[Adrian Hunter]

Karajan remains the only version I've heard (which includes
Grondhal) to get the closing section right (well, apart form the
stupid break just after the final timpani "battle") -- as Robert
Simpson points out, the "motto" theme should at the end be played
faster than at any other point in the symphony. The brass are not
too coarse IMO (and I don't think the BPO's usual brass style
would be much use in Nielsen anyway). True that the recording is
a typical DG earl-digital clunker, but the performance is quite
impressive. Many think Karajan viewed music out of a limousine,
but it's not always the case, and this is one. I don't care that
his tempo seems slightly slower than average: I think his
conception of the piece works, and that's what counts.

Adrian

[David Hurwitz]

There are many conductors who get the closing section right--righter than
Karajan, including most especially Gibson (Chandos) and Berglund (RCA). Try
them and see what you think.

--
David Hurwitz
Executive Editor
http://www.classicstoday.com
dhur...@classicstoday.com

"Adrian Hunter" <adrian...@ed.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:38A2D057...@ed.ac.uk...

[harrilu...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, February 10, 2000 at 6:00:00 PM UTC+10, David Hurwitz wrote:
> Karajan's Nielsen Fourth is one of the very worst available. It moves at a
> crawl, under tempo almost throughout. The recording is digital glare at its
> very worst. The finale features on set of timpani, off mike, barely audible,
> and horribly out of tune. The brass playing at the climaxes is coarse and
> sloppy--shocking for this orchestra. There have been many fine recordings of
> this symphony, including Gibson (Chandos), Martinon/Chicago (RCA), and
> Schmidt (Unicorn)--but Karajan's is truly terrible in every respect. An
> abomination.
> --
> David Hurwitz
> Executive Editor
> http://www.classicstoday.com
> dhur...@classicstoday.com

Karajan's recording is not that bad, some inflexible phrasing ideas aside, there is excellent momentum and the big moments are executed magically. Must critics really speak of recordings with such partisan fervour? One would almost think the critic had a problem with the conductor ab initio!