Admirers of conductor Herbert von Karajan recently celebrated his 100th birthday, April 5, 2008. His record companies are noting the occasion too and flooding the market with dozens of reissues and some recordings which were either never before released or which had limited circulation and have long since disappeared.

The newly released Bruckner (DG004400734395) and Beethoven (DG004400734391) DVDs from Deutsche Gramophone are good examples. The Bruckner set bears a label sticker that says “First International Release on DVD.” There is no further explanation given. In fact, the Bruckner Eighth was released on Laser Disc years ago but Laser Disc technology was a short-lived phenomenon and few music-lovers ever acquired the equipped to play them. The Bruckner Ninth and “Te Deum” have been available before on DVD but only from Japan. The Beethoven “Missa Solemnis” has a similar history.

One must wonder why DG took so long to give these remarkable performances international circulation; they are among the finest examples of Karajan’s musicianship ever made. All the performances were recorded live in 1978 and 1979 when Karajan was at the height of his powers although already suffering from serious back problems, and feature repertoire in which he was incomparable.

I first encountered Karajan’s approach to Bruckner in his 1957 recording of the Eighth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic. It was very slow as compared with other recordings I knew but it had a dark and disturbing quality that made a profound impression on me. 

Then came a live performance with the Vienna Philharmonic November 17, 1959 at . Again, I was struck by the darkness of Karajan’s conception but also amazed by his ability to sustain mood and tension over such long movements. Finally, I was able to experience Karajan’s Bruckner Eighth live one more time – again at Carnegie Hall – November 10, 1974, this time with the Berlin Philharmonic. In fifteen years Karajan’s interpretation had hardly changed at all but the intensity, the concentration and the glory of the playing had continued to grow to even higher levels of achievement. The new DVD dates from June 4, 1979 in a performance with the Vienna Philharmonic in a very special place: the St. Florian church in Linz where Bruckner had been organist for many years and where he was buried.

We also have another Karajan Bruckner Eighth DVD (Sony SVD 46403) with the Vienna Philharmonic, filmed in November, 1988, just nine months before Karajan’s death. It too is a fine performance and it has the advantage that it was recorded in the Musikverein in Vienna, and with all the advantages of digital sound.

With two DVDs of the Karajan Bruckner Eighth now available, it is not easy to make a choice. The later version has a greater dynamic range and the fine VPO brass section sounds remarkably crisp and powerful; on the other hand, it seems to me that the strings of the VPO are captured better in Linz. Karajan requires infinite shades of piano and pianissimo in his Bruckner and they are all beautifully realized in Linz. Since it was being telecast live, the Linz performance also has the advantage of being an unedited document. The Sony DVD, while based on a live performance, clearly has taken advantage of retakes and uses inserts of carefully isolated individuals and sections of the orchestra. While these inserts are often beautiful and help to enhance the video experience, some viewers may find them contrived. My own view is that they are well done and the shots of the Wagner tuba players in particular, are both artistic and educational.

The Ninth Symphony and “Te Deum” DVDs are based on performances given in the Musikverein in May, 1978. Here again Karajan has total command of the style and sense of the music and of his musicians, and the “Te Deum” has a special fervor. Karajan never spoke much about his religious beliefs but he was a lifelong Catholic and it is obvious from his conducting of the major choral works how much the key moments in the liturgy meant to him. Karajan was well-known for conducting with eyes shut, but not in choral works. Both in the “Te Deum and” in the “Missa Solemnis” his eyes are open. In works with chorus he also dispensed with a baton, preferring the sweeping gestures characteristic of most choral conductors.

Karajan admirers will want to visit the website of the Vienna Philharmonic where longtime VPO violinist and president Dr. Clemens Hellsberg has posted an appreciation titled Herbert von Karajan, the Vienna Philharmonic and Anton Bruckner. He gives a history of the relationship between Karajan and the orchestra with special reference to their Bruckner performances together. He gives a particularly moving account of their Bruckner Eighth performance in New York, February 26, 1989: “This concert remains an unforgettable experience for all participants, where the aged and obviously ailing conductor received indescribable ovations from the audience in attendance. Those who witnessed a completely exhausted Karajan, collapsed in a chair backstage after the concert, yet still managing to utter words of appreciation for the orchestra, could not doubt the victory of the spirit over the body.”

Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” was recorded at the Salzburg Easter Festival in April 1979. Karajan made numerous recordings of the piece but this one is perhaps the finest. Toscanini’s classic recording remains a touchstone not least of all because of the incredible work of the chorus prepared by Robert Shaw. But the Wiener Singverein is up to Beethoven’s cruel technical demands and offers plenty of power and lovely soft singing as required. The soloists are as fine a group as I have ever heard. They give everything they’ve got but never shout and never lose the musical line. Tomowa-Sintow is magnificent, pouring out the most beautiful arching phrases one could ever hope to hear and Baldani matches her every step of the way.

The main point to be made about this performance is that it is essentially a traditional one, but raised to the nth degree. John Eliot Gardiner and Nikolaus Harnoncourt obviously prefer an approach that is said to be more historically informed. Karajan did what he did as best he could based on what he had learned from the great conductors who had come before him – that may be another very respectable way of being historically informed.

Karajan was essentially a purist when it came to the printed score. He rarely changed anything once he had decided on which printed edition to use. This made him different from many other superstar conductors who came before and after him, such as Bernstein, Stokowski, Furtwängler or Mengelberg. Instead of personalizing the scores he conducted, he focussed on accuracy, beauty of phrasing and energy.

Thanks to DG for finally making this “Missa Solemnis” available on DVD, with one small kaveat: in any performance of the “Missa Solemnis” the name of the violinist who plays the extended solo in the ‘Benedictus’ must be mentioned. In this performance he even stands to play his solo as befits the importance of his contribution. Nowhere on the DG jacket or in the booklet is his name to be found. For the record the excellent violinist on this DVD is Thomas Brandis, one of the concertmasters of the Berlin Philharmonic.

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