- Audio CD (2 Sep 1997)
- SPARS Code: DDD
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Import
- Label: Decca (UMO)
- ASIN: B000001GEM
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
25,207 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
- #50 in Music > Opera & Vocal > Choral > Requiem
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having been severely underwhelmed by the stodginess of Simon Rattle's much-vaunted Berlin recording of this great work, I turned with relief to this, the last of Karajan's versions. It is by no means afflicted by the "smoothification" which sometimes marked Karajan's later work: it is both grand and rugged, speeds not especially slow and invariably generating the requisite tension at such points when Brahms bursts out of the prevailing mood of melancholy and the music surges forward, as in the "Aber des Herrn Wort" and the great, consolatory C major fugue, so reminiscent of Bach. The Vienna forces are superb, galvanised by Karajan's sure direction, secure of intonation and startlingly unified. The soloists are equally inspired: José van Dam easily the finest bass-baritone I have ever heard in this part, noble of tone and subtle of expression; Barbara Hendricks' silvery voice soars angelically to rival Gundula Janowitz - which is high praise indeed. It is an "old-fashioned" account compared with Gardiner's friskiness but I think this Romantic, humanist grappling with grief and search for meaning in death needs more weight than Gardiner gives it and this 1983 recording remains my Brahms Requiem of choice.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
11 reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Karajan >> << Brahms
17 Oct 2003
Format:Audio CD
As important as Brahms is to the Classical world and as great as his music is, it would be a far lesser thing without the incredible interpretation of von Karajan. I choose to look past all the many criticisms - too stolid, too slow, too grand, too careful - and look at the final product.
Brahms inhabited Karajan's soul as no other composer with the possible exception of Richard Strauss. I have the Symphonies (two versions), the Concertos and now the Requiem. The music is simultaneously beautiful and touching, moving on several levels. I have often wondered about the artists and their fount of inventiveness. What is Brahms "trying to say"? This is not the traditional Requiem of a Verdi, Mozart, Schubert or Beethoven. No, it is more a celebration of the human spirit. If you must get only one version, this is the one. The voices are clear, the orchestra just the right tone, the longing and "Germanenss" of the music stand out above all. It has that haunting forest mood that inhabits so much of Brahm's music.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Singing, tuneful performance
14 April 2002
Format:Audio CD
I just compared Klemperer/Gardiner/3 Karajan's versions/Masur/Barenboļm /Shaw. This is the one I prefer because of the singing tempo, the articulation is just superb, very tuneful. If only, the solists were rather the Janovitch & Meyer combo of another Karajan's version but whose rythm is too flat & bland compared to this one, the ideal match would be met. I also really liked Rodney Gilfry in Gardiner's version & Janet Williams in Barenboļm's.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Karajan's last German Requiem is the saddest and most staid
19 Feb 2008
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Karajan produced one of the great documents in the postwar era when he recorded the German Requiem in the rubble of 1947 Vienna. That radiant spiritual account, with the incomparable Hans Hotter and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as soloists, should be the starting point for anyone exploring Brahms's greatest choral work. Karajan continued to feel an affinity for it and produced no less than three later versions in stereo, of which this digital account, also from Vienna, is the last -- in his end was his beginning.
It is solemn, at times staid, and full of power. If you identify late Karajan with glossy surfaces and glib interpretations (an ovr-generalization that made the great Carlos Kleiber, among others, bristle), never fear. Everything here is profound and touching. The recording is exceptionally fine -- the best of all his versions -- and Jose Van Dam is particularly strong in the baritone part, sounding deeply involved and dramatic. Barbara Hendricks produces an easy, honeyedlyricism in the Traurigkeit movement. I had overlooked this 1985 recording in my enthusiasm for the 1947 original, but it's touched by greatness in its own right.
It is solemn, at times staid, and full of power. If you identify late Karajan with glossy surfaces and glib interpretations (an ovr-generalization that made the great Carlos Kleiber, among others, bristle), never fear. Everything here is profound and touching. The recording is exceptionally fine -- the best of all his versions -- and Jose Van Dam is particularly strong in the baritone part, sounding deeply involved and dramatic. Barbara Hendricks produces an easy, honeyedlyricism in the Traurigkeit movement. I had overlooked this 1985 recording in my enthusiasm for the 1947 original, but it's touched by greatness in its own right.
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