Herbert Von Karajan - Maestro For The Screen - A Film By Georg Wubbolt DVD

Advantages: J. S. Bach; all musicians and vocalists; Karajan.
Disadvantages: Karajan's big, ponderous sound and historical inauthenticity, for some.

...With an eye to leaving an impressive legacy, Austrian-born conductor Herbert von Karajan was wise to adopt the available modern technology early on to record his works for posterity. 'His Legacy For Home Video', as the DVD project was called, gave him complete artistic and technical control over the entire production. Notwithstanding the pomposity of the name, the series from Sony Classical does earn its place in every classical music lover's library for the sheer excellence of the recorded material. One disc that never goes out of favour for this listener is the all-Bach 1984 New Year's Eve Concert (Silvesterkonzert) held at Mr Karajan's stomping grounds, the Berlin Philharmonie, where he directs the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The featured soloist is German violinist and Karajan protegé Anne-Sophie Mutter, who plays... Read review

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Advantages: Superb production, fascinating footage, great music
Disadvantages: None whatsoever apart from wanting more

...others. Some of the conductors featured are Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Thomas Beecham, Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Richard Strauss, Leopold Stokowski and Bruno Walter to single out a few names. Right from the opening of the documentary you realise the high quality of the production values on this DVD as Beethoven's 5th Symphony segues seamlessly between different performances by very different conductors. Hearing the same piece conducted by Toscanini, von Karajan, Klemperer and Szell heightens the contrasts between the styles and interpretations of each of these highly individual maestri. One of the big plus-points of this DVD is that along with copious extracts from performances and rehearsals, one is given complete performances of several works including Beethoven's "Egmont Overture" conducted by Serge Koussevitzky... Read review

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Advantages: Fascinating insight into a very private conductor
Disadvantages: One always wants more concert clips in DVDs like this...

...as well as many other top maestri including one of my own conducting professors.) Abbado has held some of the most important conducting jobs in the world including Music Director of La Scala Milan opera house from 1968-86, Music Director of the Vienna State Opera from 1986-91, Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1979-87 and in 1989 he succeeded Herbert von Karajan as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic - a post he held until 2002. Recently he has reformed the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, a unique "freelance" orchestra made up of soloists, chamber musicians and top orchestral players from around Europe, they've recorded some highly acclaimed CDs and DVDs, especially of Mahler symphonies which are amongst the highlights of Abbado's large and varied discography. In 2000, Abbado was diagnosed with stomach cancer... Read review

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