# Beethoven Symphonies Karajan Gold Cycle?



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I really don't care for this set. What I'm wondering is how other people feel about, and how it has been received by critics in general?


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Klassic said:


> I really don't care for this set. What I'm wondering is how other people feel about, and how it has been received by critics in general?


Nothing to add, just that it's made, to be made by Karajan.


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I have listened to most of the symphonies in the set. I thought it was "old school Karajan style", which doesn't always appeal to me. But as a first listen, it was worth the experience. I don't own any of the recordings.


----------



## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

If you don't like it then that is all that matters, if the reviews were glowing it would still sound the same.


----------



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Haydn man said:


> If you don't like it then that is all that matters, if the reviews were glowing it would still sound the same.


With good reason I'm almost always willing to take a second listen.


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

I've never understood what made Karajan so great, personally I think his recordings are meh at best...


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Fugue Meister said:


> I've never understood what made Karajan so great, personally I think his recordings are meh at best...


Try the Decca years , you be surprised :tiphat:


----------



## AndorFoldes (Aug 25, 2012)

Try the 3rd and 8th symphonies and overtures from the Karajan Gold cycle, available on two discs. Those are excellent performances.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Am I understanding this "Gold Cycle" is not the same as the 1963 Beethoven symphony recordings on DG? Those are great big hulking lovable monsters.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Weston said:


> Am I understanding this "Gold Cycle" is not the same as the 1963 Beethoven symphony recordings on DG? Those are great big hulking lovable monsters.


The "Gold" cycle is recorded later :tiphat:


----------



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

AndorFoldes said:


> Try the 3rd and 8th symphonies and overtures from the Karajan Gold cycle, available on two discs. Those are excellent performances.


This is exactly what I was looking for. Oddly enough, I always thought the 3rd sounded very good, but because there are so many weak performances in the set, I thought this appreciation might be a defect in my ear. Thanks for the feedback.


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Is the Gold Cycle a remastered version, done second time? I think I am confused with the versions here.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Klassic said:


> I really don't care for this set. What I'm wondering is how other people feel about, and how it has been received by critics in general?


Which orchestra is Karajan conducting here? What year?

I still believe the best Beethoven cycle Karajan ever recorded was his first one that I bought way, way back on Angel Records (EMI) with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Must have been recorded in the 1950's. A terrific set that I owned on vinyl.

The Philharmonia years were the real golden years for Karajan. Not only great Beethoven, but incomparable Sibelius too!


----------



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Product Details

Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Audio CD (October 12, 1993) - _I assume this means it's remastered.
_
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000001GKP?ref_=cm_lmf_img_1


----------



## Jeffrey Smith (Jan 2, 2016)

Weston said:


> Am I understanding this "Gold Cycle" is not the same as the 1963 Beethoven symphony recordings on DG? Those are great big hulking lovable monsters.


It is a remaster of his 80s cycle. I prefer it slightly to his other Beethoven sets, but only in the same way that I prefer Irish Breakfast tea to English Breakfast tea. And when I want to hear a Beethoven symphony, I am far more likely to pull any one of a dozen other conductors off the shelf instead of Karajan.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ArtMusic said:


> Is the Gold Cycle a remastered version, done second time? I think I am confused with the versions here.


It's recorded in the 1980 and beyond and yes remastered for Gold.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Fugue Meister said:


> I've never understood what made Karajan so great, personally I think his recordings are meh at best...


I assume you haven't haeard many of them then. Like any conductor he had hits and misses but his best are among the very best of all time.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The fact is that most of the performances of the 1980 set are good but not as good as those he did earlier. Number three is an exception and is an absolutely superb performance. The recordings are digital and a bit cloudy but they come up brilliantly in the gold series remastering. I think the general consensus on the 1988 recordings is they are good performances but not as good as he did before and therefore the site is really unnecessary.


----------



## dsphipps100 (Jan 10, 2016)

Fugue Meister said:


> I've never understood what made Karajan so great, personally I think his recordings are meh at best...


The thing that has always jumped out at me about Karajan was not his interpretive/conducting ability as much as his absolute magicianship (if I can be allowed to create a word) at orchestra building.

Regardless of what one thinks of it (for good or for bad), the fact is that the Karajan-era Berliner Philharmoniker had the weightiest, most opulently rich sound of any orchestra that I have ever heard. I have never heard a string section that has that amount of sheer muscle and power in their sound, nor a wind section that is, at once, both so "dark"-sounding (as in all the rough edges smoothed out of their sound) and yet also capable of playing with such overwhelming volume of sound.

There are some recordings of Karajan conducting that have met with considerable acclaim (such as his 1982 DDD Mahler 9), but I've always thought the Berliners sounded best when somebody _else_ was conducting Karajan's orchestra, like Abbado's Brahms cycle, or Semyon Bychkov's Tchaikovsky Nutcracker, or James Levine's Berlioz Requiem, or Maazel's "The Ring Without Words".


----------

