Karajan & Ein Heldenleben - brief survey

I was a student in April 1985 in Sheffield. I borrowed a friend's hi-fi for the evening to record a concert that became very significant in my education in classical music.  The Berlin Philharmonic were in London at the Festival Hall to play Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life) under the baton of Herbert von Karajan.  They had played the work in concert four times that Spring each time coupled with Bach's Second Orchestral Suite and Beethoven's Fourth Symphony.  For some reason the Bach was dropped for the London performance. They had also recorded the work in February in that year: audio recording was released by DG and later a DVD by Sony.

I didn't know the work at all but was immediately blown away both by the quality of the orchestral writing and teh intriguing idea of teh composer as subject of his own work and the sheer beauty of the Berliner's sound.  None of their recordings captured that sound - but I guess that's always been the case with the best orchestras.  I was drawn not only to the performance which I treasured and replayed time and time again and stupidly dumped when I got the DG recording, but also the work too.

The work has always had its critics and there's much to give grist to their mill - the seemingly self-agrandising idea of a musical self-portrait or autobiography, the graphic sexuality and the overblown orchestration.  There is much more to it than that I think and over the years the 'hero' in my mind as acquired quotation marks around his musical guise.  As Alex Ross points out in "The Art of Noise" so much of Strauss' work is about strong women and I don't think we should dismiss this work so much as the portrait of the pompous hero but recognise it as a protrait of how a man who's only skill in life is to compose music can work with his wife, a demanding wife at that.  and there is a turning point after the Hero's works of peace where Grand Guignol turns to sincere statement in the hero's retreat from the world.  And I've often though it poignant to reflect on Strauss' boyhood experiences of domesticity: his mother struggling with mental illness and his father's angry reaction to it.

Karajan's performance of the work seems to hold a fine balance between the two faces of Strauss - the showman and the husband.  It is born out of the a rich understanding of the Strauss operas where moments of serene contemplation within comedy or drama suddenly get to the basics of problems we all worry about - especially ageing and death.  As he got older no doubt this preoccupation of the (relatively young Strauss) became much mor important I think to Karajan - maybe subconscious reacting to elements in the music.  His early 80s recording of Rosenkavelier had been spun out with almost daily re-recordings of the Countess' monologue on the vicious passage of time.

According to the Karajan Centrum database he conducted Heldenleben in concert 70 times - the vast majority of these were with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.  He conducted it with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (at the Hollywood Bowl no less), and early performances in Ulm, and Berlin with the Staatskapelle. According to this database, he didn't perform it at all with the Vienna Philharmoninc - which is odd because he performed and recorded other Strauss works with that orchestra.  So the music path was as familiar to orchestra and conductor as any on which they had worked together.

There are now 7 CD recordings available.  There are three studio recordings 2 for Deutsche Grammophon and one for EMI, and Testement have released two BBC recoridngs of concerts from the Royal Festival Hall in London - from 1972 and the 1986 concert I heard.  This latter probably the best live performance by these forces I've heard. A 1969 performance from Moscow and both the NYPO and LAPO performances from the late fifties are all painfully recorded.

Heldenleben has come up in the Berlin Philharmonic Karajan live box, it’s in mono and adds little to the discography although it’s interesting to hear the woodwind solos from musicians who would superstars in the 70s & 80s under Karajan’s leadership.

Buyers Guide

If you want a slightly self-conscious Heldenleben, beautifully played but with a regal gait (which I think is a misreading of Strauss' intent) then go for DG 1959 captured wonderfully on the Blu Ray disc (in the set pictured below) - but it's not the reading Karajan was later to prefer.

If you want a rather flashy the horrid EMI version is available - with it's dubious cover

If you want a Heldenleben which is detailed - a loving domestic portrait of a husband and wife, she beloved and rich in personality, he ebullient but prone to self doubt and self pity and both resigned to escape from their crazy musical world and dwell with Nature then DG 1986 is the one.

The difference's in the three recordings he made were in many ways slight and some might say superficial.  But they are worth consideration if only for a buyers guide.  Karajan's reputation for re-recording is often painted with a commercial and technological impetus (most often the former).  But I think the real differences show an artistic progress if not necessarily a progression.  Whether the opportunistic side of the conductor was guided by the artistic one it is hard to say.  On the one hand who could forgive the old man for approaching Heldenleben in the knowledge it could be encountered by a listener without an LP side break when CDs came along? On the other so marked is the difference between the 1974 recording and the 1985 one that

The 1957 recording with the Berliners was in DG's favourite venue at the time, the Jesus Christe Kirche in Berlin.  It is perhaps the most natural of the three and has space around the instruments - DG's early stereo recordings are for the most part spectacular in detail but never as showy as their Decca or Mercury equivalents.  The score is not easy to record with intimate moments for violin and woodwind solos at one hand and at the other a battery of percussion and brass playing at full tilt.

The DVD recording from Sony is perhaps better heard than seen though seeing these great BPO soloists miming in completely ridiculous uniform positions is just risible.  It wasn't great sound on the original Sony release and the later Sony BMG release was slightly better but in both the orchestra sounds wood and the video reminiscent of aged pop video mechanics.