Search - Mozart, Bpo, Karajan :: Mozart: Requiem

More SACD goodness

Ken Bailey | Ypsilanti, MI United States | 06/05/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"the more SACD's I buy and hear, the more I get spoiled by the clarity of the sound and the crispness of it. I never realized what people meant when they said they didn't like CDs because they removed the warmth. Now I know what they mean. CDs clipped out alot of the fuzziness of the sound and they don't sound quite real. SACD put's that fuzziness back so that you get the feeeling of the orchestra being right in your living room.
This one is no exception. You hear the full range of the voices in the choir. You also hear the orchestra and all the range of the drums and stuff. This makes this a listening experience."

About as sincere as a Hollywood funeral

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/23/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Karajan, like every conductor in his generaiton, favored a large-scaled cathedral approach to the Mozart Requiem, with suitably slow tempos and big effects. He made two recordings of the work for DG, in 1976 and 1987--this is the digital remake. It sounds gorgeous, and the Vienna Phil. and chorus are wondeful. But gorgeousness is the oerpative word here. Karajan lays on saccharine devotionalism that I don't buy for a moment.



Just compare this glossy, stage-managed affair to the genuinely moving account by Solti in 1991 (Decca). That performance is also on a grand romantic scale, and Solti leads the same orchestra, but the overall effect couldn't be more different. You genuinely feel the depth of a sacred musical ritual. I am a great admirer of Karajan's, yet I must say that in devotional choral works, particularly near the end of his caareer, he could be embarrassingly insincere."