{"id":490,"date":"2010-06-13T22:08:05","date_gmt":"2010-06-14T05:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/?p=490"},"modified":"2010-06-13T22:08:05","modified_gmt":"2010-06-14T05:08:05","slug":"day-109-ravel-and-mahler-mostly-with-herbert-von-karajan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/archives\/490","title":{"rendered":"Day 109. Ravel and Mahler (mostly with Herbert von Karajan)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So, more about Richard the loyal Tower customer. He once told me that he rated conductors by how he thought they would be in bed. Some of these rating were quite graphic and won\u2019t be shared here, but for any given piece he would have a couple conductors that he thought would get the job done and others that he thought would leave you wanting. Almost always near the top of his list was Herbert von Karajan. And after a few required listenings in the classical room to this work or that work, I began to agree more and more. Karajan certainly had a way to shape phrasing, and certainly knew when to pause for a breath before continuing on… pacing quite often seems to be everything in Karajan recordings. And though he could handle the classical and romantic repertoire just about better then anyone else, I think it is also good that Karajan knew when there was area he couldn\u2019t handle. The number of recordings of his that break into the 20th century avant-garde are few (his recording of Stravinsky\u2019s \u2018Rite of Spring\u2019 is good to hear, only because you can really see how much of a problem even a great conductor can have with it). But with the 20th century works that grew out of late romantic works, he could be brilliant. His Debussy is very well done, same with his Sibelius and Richard Strauss. But the recording that I remember Richard suggesting to me above all else was Ravel\u2019s \u2018La Valse\u2019. Karajan conducted the Viennese new year\u2019s concerts a number of times, and he certainly knew his was around the Strauss waltzes like few conductors do. But his recording of the Ravel is stunning. And if there is a work that needs Richard\u2019s \u2018good in bed\u2019 rating system, \u2018La Valse\u2019 is certainly one of them.<\/p>\n

But here was the trick – the CD of this recording was, in the 90s, long out of print. It also featured the Orchestre de Paris, and may have been the only recording he did with the group. I was able to find a vinyl recording a couple years later at Amoeba in Berkeley (oh Amoeba, I miss you so). The LP was in good condition, but the recording level was VERY low for the first part of the bass (the rumbling basses). But it wasn\u2019t until about two years ago that I finally found a CD pressing during a trip to Copenhagen. This was one of three CDs or so that I looked for at every used record store I would go into, and after 8 or 9 years, I had finally found it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so good.<\/p>\n

Also on the disc are good recordings of \u2018Le Tombeau de Couperin\u2019 and \u2018Rapsodie espagnole\u2019, but it is \u2018La Valse\u2019 that is the highlight. And it is damn sexy.<\/p>\n

Also ripped tonight was lots more Mahler, including a few harder to find Karajan recordings (the 4th and \u2018Das Lied von der Erde\u2019). I have way too many recordings of the 9th and \u2018Das Lied von der Erde\u2019. But one find in the stack was the Herreweghe recording of \u2018Das Lied\u2019 with the Sch\u00f6nberg chamber version. Quite beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, more about Richard the loyal Tower customer. He once told me that he rated conductors by how he thought they would be in bed. Some of these rating were quite graphic and won\u2019t be shared here, but for any given piece he would have a couple conductors that he thought would get the job […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[55,196,26],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classical","tag-herbert-von-karajan","tag-mahler","tag-ravel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realizedsound.net\/dac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}