Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan - Schubert: Symphonie No. 9 & Rosamunde Ballet Music (1978/2013) [Hi-Res]

There are those who would argue that the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan was a magnificent instrument for the later Romantics Brahms, Bruckner, Wagner, and Strauss. There are others, however, who would argue that Karajan and the BPO were too magnificent for the earlier Romantics Mendelssohn, Schumann, and especially Schubert. They would say that the lushly, plushly, voluptuously sensual sound of the BPO simply overwhelmed the lighter, brighter, and more lyrical early Romantics. And while a few might concede that the BPO may be acceptable in Mendelssohn’s Italian or Schumann’s Rhenish, even they would say that they were all wrong for Schubert.

They would be right. As re-packaged in two, two-disc sets, Karajan and the BPO’s Schubert is a short, fat greasy little Austrian with an expensive cigar. Although elegantly attired in the height of fashion, Karajan and the BPO’s Schubert is the kind of character Strauss skewered in Baron Ochs from Der Rosenkavalier: an oaf, a dunderhead, a loquacious narcissist who has nothing to say but says it over and over again and again while always and at every moment his talk is only ever about himself. Music that sings in full-throated passion and sublime lyricism in recordings by Kleiber, Abbado, Böhm, and Krips here sounds over-ripe, over-sexed, and over-long. EMI’s digital remastering is as rich and warm as their stereo originals. Review by James Leonard