# Confused about Karajan



## tempo (Nov 8, 2012)

Apparently the 60s and 70s boxsets of Karajan's work on DG feature some remasterings of key things such as the Bruckner and Schumann cycles.

Pain in the bum that you need to buy massive, expensive boxsets to access these remasterings and a pain in the bum that DG can't be bothered to be clear about what they have and haven't remastered.

They've also reissued the Karajan Symphony Edition in 2014 - apparently NOT using the remasterings used for the 70s boxset. Again though, this isn't made clear one way or the other.

Anyone know anything about all this?!


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

There was a pretty long article about this in IRR (International Record Review) a few months back. I don't remember the answer to your question, and I didn't save the magazine, which has gone out of business in the last 2 months, but which should be easy to obtain from a decent library.


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## tempo (Nov 8, 2012)

Triplets said:


> There was a pretty long article about this in IRR (International Record Review) a few months back. I don't remember the answer to your question, and I didn't save the magazine, which has gone out of business in the last 2 months, but which should be easy to obtain from a decent library.


I doubt this is going to be anything I can hope to source but thank you anyway.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I don't think that remastering matters a whole heck of a lot in classical music. It's usually mastered pretty well, so any improvement is liable to be minor. That doesn't apply so much to stuff that wasn't mastered particularly well in the first place (Bernstein NY or Stravinsky conducting Stravinsky on Columbia).


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

tempo said:


> I doubt this is going to be anything I can hope to source but thank you anyway.


 If you live near a major library (remember those? the kind you can use without a computer?) it shouldn't be that hard.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Can you get the information on the DGG website, or whomever owns their recordings? They should be able to answer that question for you.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Remember, "remastering" can mean just adding more tracks to a disk with the exact same sound quality. The complete Karajan box sets are LP jacket versions, so they have been "remastered" to have fewer tracks than the ones with filled up CD running times.


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## arbiter elegantiarum (Jul 5, 2015)

tempo said:


> Apparently the 60s and 70s boxsets of Karajan's work on DG feature some remasterings of key things such as the Bruckner and Schumann cycles.
> 
> Pain in the bum that you need to buy massive, expensive boxsets to access these remasterings and a pain in the bum that DG can't be bothered to be clear about what they have and haven't remastered.
> 
> ...


Mark E. Stenroos who is absolutely reliable in this matter claims that the Beethoven and Bruckner cycles have been newly remastered.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R23ALY...channel=detail-glance&nodeID=5174&store=music


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## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

Remastering, you say, hm? _Improved sound? _How intriguing!

You've just given me another reason to revisit Kapellmeister's interpretations.


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## Karafan (Aug 18, 2013)

tempo said:


> Apparently the 60s and 70s boxsets of Karajan's work on DG feature some remasterings of key things such as the Bruckner and Schumann cycles.
> 
> Pain in the bum that you need to buy massive, expensive boxsets to access these remasterings and a pain in the bum that DG can't be bothered to be clear about what they have and haven't remastered.
> 
> ...


Hi Tempo - I have the review and a friend has the boxset if you need any particular query settling.
K.


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