Herbert Von Karajan - His Legacy for Home Video - Beethoven Symphony No. 9Rating:
Release Date: 27 October, 1998 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $12.99 You SAVE: $1.99! Cast: |
Herbert Von Karajan - His Legacy for Home Video - Beethoven Symphony No. 9 Reviews
Is it really live show?
I doubt if it is really a live performance recording. It is quite impossible to have those angles taken if it is really a live performance... If it is the case, it won't be difficult to understand why we cannot see the whole orchestra and audience. It is totally unacceptable to buy a dvd without the chance to see the whole orchestra.
The worst Beethoven's 9th that I have ever heard/seen
As negative as this may sound, I must declare that this is the worst recording of Beethoven's 9th symphony that I have ever heard or seen. This performance was recorded in 1983, a few years before Herbert von Karajan died, and around the time when there were tensions between him and the Berlin Philharmonic (the orchestra for this performance). I can only think of one word to describe this performance: "cold" ; the orchestra plays their instruments with no passion whatsoever, and they move like machines, their bows going up and down the strings, up and down, up and down... Even the chorus and the solo singers have looks on their faces like students that are absolutely terrified of their new teacher. Their mouths just open and close, with the correct German words coming out, and the less-than-correct notes coming out as well, but they are not singing Beethoven at all; they are reciting German lyrics to a beat with a few pitches here and there. That is all. There is also the orchestral performance; the drum is out of tune in the last movement (it is tuned to D-sharp instead of D-natural, a half-step higher than neccessary), and even some of the string playing is out of tune; for someone like myself that has perfect pitch, this is incredibly annoying and completely ruins the listening of the music. The camera shots are only ok, although (and this may come as a complete surprise to other viewers here) it is actually the shots of Herbert von Karajan himself that prevented me from throwing this DVD away in the garbage. Seeing this legendary conductor conduct perhaps the greatest symphony ever written is really amazing, even if the outcome was not so great. I somewhat disagree with the singers having "girly" voices; they sound fine to me, but once again, there is a difference between singing music about joy written by Beethoven and chanting German with a beat and some random pitches to it. The two women (Lella Cuberli, soprano, and Helga Muller Molinari, alto) are the only two singers that sound wonderful, and they look just beautiful too - no WONDER Karajan selected them = - ) In any case, do not buy this DVD at all, and don't even consider buying it either. I would reccomend either the 1960's version or the 1970's version (both on Deutsche Grammophon) if you want Karajan. But definately not this one. No.
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