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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
These recordings are superior to the earlier recordings Karajan made with the Berlin Philharmonic in the 1970s (due in part to the improved recording technology, perhaps). According to his biographer, Karajan was close to tears during the very moving performance of "A Hero's Life", and on listening to it one can see why. "Death and Transfiguration" is truly magnificent- the most beautfully intense version I have ever heard. This is a purchase you will not regret.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The performance of Ein Heldenleben is very fine but what really draws me back time and time again to this CD is the spellbinding performance of Tod und Verklaerung. From drama through love to desolation and consolation in death, this paints a canvas of emotions which for me no other music in my collection matches. The tremolo rise of the strings in the Verklaerung section to a breathtaking climax of high tremolo strings is quite simply that: breathtaking. After this CD, I very quickly acquired all other Karajan Strauss tone poems recordings. Karajan and Strauss are a perfect fit, which is probably not surprising seeing as they knew each other in their lifetime. Highly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
The Ein Heldenleben Performance Is Extraordinary But Has Glassy Digital Sound, However Death And Transfiguration Is Unparalleled
7 Nov 2006
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The final Ein Heldenleben from Karajan's digital days is a tremendous performance as usual with this great conductor but the DG engineers let him down slightly in that the sound has that early digital edge with the glassy violins, even in this Karajan Gold remastered performance. If you truly want to hear the pure, gorgeous sound of Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in Ein Heldenleben, seek out the EMI performance from the 1970's. It is available in the "Karajan Edition" and the "Karajan Collection" on EMI. The reading is just as amazing as this one but has even more impetus and the sound EMI provides is heavenly, lush, warm and wide-ranging.
Now to Death and Transfiguration, not only is the performance one of the greatest in history, the recorded sound is just as good. No edge or glassiness here, it sounds like a million bucks. It's one of Karajan's most famous performances of Richard Strauss and to listen to it in remastered sound is a major treat if you love this tone poem, which I surely do.
Now to Death and Transfiguration, not only is the performance one of the greatest in history, the recorded sound is just as good. No edge or glassiness here, it sounds like a million bucks. It's one of Karajan's most famous performances of Richard Strauss and to listen to it in remastered sound is a major treat if you love this tone poem, which I surely do.
Good performances, but not a first choice
27 Dec 2010
Format:Audio CD
With Original Image Bit Processing applied the sound on this disc is certainly impressively exciting and in-your-face (though some may find it a little digital sounding). On the other hand Karajan seems never really to have had the full measure of Ein Heldenleben, and the later versions are more problematic than the earlier ones - the performances are bombastic (which is not entirely out of place in this music, of course), but one longs for a sharper characterization in certain sections and - perhaps more surprisingly - there are a number of rough edges to the Berlin Philharmonic's playing. While there are some utterly gorgeous textures and brilliant moments as well, the performances are also lacking in ferocity and energy (this is a typically problematic late Karajan performance, in other words, though not without redeeming qualities). Tod und Verklärung is more convincing; although Karajan is on the slow side, the climaxes are convincingly paced and the playing overall powerful and gorgeously opulent. This is, in short, a recommendable release, but should not be anyone's first and only Heldenleben.
8 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Ravishing Ear Candy, but...
7 Dec 2003
Format:Audio CD
It's hard for me to evaluate an album of Richard Strauss works. Despite his being considered one of the "Great Composers," I often feel his music is a lot of ear candy. Glorious ear candy, to be sure, but for some reason I don't hear this music as anything more than larger-than-life tone poems a la Respighi. All the "philosophy" that supposedly resides in Strauss, I just don't hear. Maybe that makes me unfit to review his music, but it seems to me that Strauss was nowhere near the composer Mahler was, despite Strauss giving criticism to Mahler after after hearing his 6th Symphony that it was "over-orchestrated." Yet Mahler was often vilified by the critics for his excesses and vulgarities, when I hear this in Strauss' music, not Mahler's.
Yet some of Strauss' tone poems, if you can get past the heavy-handedness, are actually very easy on the ear, let's face it: they have big lines that practically have blinking neon lights that say "MELODY" on them, generally easy harmonies, and lavish orchestrations. Lots of chromaticisms that might have been daring in Wagner's time, but Wagner wrote in the 1880s and Strauss wrote in the first half of the 20th century, a generation later. Debussy's statement that Wagner was a sunset mistaken for a sunrise could more apty be applied to Richard Strauss.
Needless to say, Karajan excells in the long line, in homogenized sound, in emphasing The Big Statement. So he and Strauss were made for each other. Listening to these works, you feel the Berlin Philharmonic could play them on autopilot. This isn't to say the performances are uninpsired, but rather that they play effortlessly. It's all very beautiful, and this is a great stereo demo disc. But I feel about these works the way Lara St. John says she feels about Brahms, that his works never "reach orgasm," so to speak. (I don't agree with her about Brahms, though; Brahms had plenty of orgasms, if only in his music.) Still, if you want full-bodied, powerful interpretations of these works in glorious soundplayed by the most gorgeous strings in the world, this is the disc. It's all a matter of whether Strauss tone poems are your cup of tea.
Yet some of Strauss' tone poems, if you can get past the heavy-handedness, are actually very easy on the ear, let's face it: they have big lines that practically have blinking neon lights that say "MELODY" on them, generally easy harmonies, and lavish orchestrations. Lots of chromaticisms that might have been daring in Wagner's time, but Wagner wrote in the 1880s and Strauss wrote in the first half of the 20th century, a generation later. Debussy's statement that Wagner was a sunset mistaken for a sunrise could more apty be applied to Richard Strauss.
Needless to say, Karajan excells in the long line, in homogenized sound, in emphasing The Big Statement. So he and Strauss were made for each other. Listening to these works, you feel the Berlin Philharmonic could play them on autopilot. This isn't to say the performances are uninpsired, but rather that they play effortlessly. It's all very beautiful, and this is a great stereo demo disc. But I feel about these works the way Lara St. John says she feels about Brahms, that his works never "reach orgasm," so to speak. (I don't agree with her about Brahms, though; Brahms had plenty of orgasms, if only in his music.) Still, if you want full-bodied, powerful interpretations of these works in glorious soundplayed by the most gorgeous strings in the world, this is the disc. It's all a matter of whether Strauss tone poems are your cup of tea.
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