Vienna Philharmonic/Herbert von Karajan. Deutsche Grammophon 429 226-2 [Symphony No. 7] (recorded April 1989).
Herbert von Karajan’s recording of the Seventh with the Vienna Philharmonic was the last recording he made. His powers were never greater than here, at the end of an astonishing 50-year recording career, when he deserted Berlin for Vienna, and an orchestra that was ready to give him everything he wanted.
This is a performance that grows as one listens, accumulating extraordinary power. It is alive, feverish, visionary, far more urgent in expression than Karajan’s prior rendition with the Berlin Philharmonic. There is a Mahlerian quality to the reading – very personal, fervent, almost mystical. And the score itself seems to be a kind of heated plasma rather than the solid marble of the Berlin account; the searing edge and intensity of expression in the playing of the Viennese strings at times approaches incandescence.
In the end, though, the reading is perhaps a little too urgent. For while there should be intense feeling in the performance of this symphony, there should also be a sense of modesty, of humility before the throne. The recording has good presence, but not enough firmness in the bass. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.
