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Neujahrskonzert In Wien (New Year's Concert)

from: Polygram Records

Release Date October 25, 1990
How can everybody rate this New Year's Concert 5 stars? Okay, this is one of Karajan's last great concerts and he spent a lot of energy during rehearsals. But his conducting is nothing short of routine, as if he was fed up with playing these works over and over again, and he gives the works as much rhythm as plum pudding - Unter Donner und Blitz is so careful that it is more about older people trying to handle a firecracker than about thunder (listen to Reiner!). Kathleen Battle is simply delicious however, thus providing a striking contrast to Karajan's heaviness in Fruhlingsstimmen - like a young nurse visiting a retirement house. I found she was the main interest in this concert, along with the presence of three works that Karajan had never ... Read More: