Audition: Brahms Symphony No. 1, RCO/Karajan

Recorded: Concertgebouw, Amsterdam 1942

Released by Polydor, DG and latterly, Naxos

The Nazi’s occupied Amsterdam in 1940, this recording came from a time when German artists were deployed in a kind of cruel cultural assimilation. We know many musicians including Karajan had to be members of the Nazi party and Karajan was also a growing cultural asset to certain members of the Nazi high command. Furtwangler was in competition with his younger colleague and so a deal of tension, he would, it is said, refer to the younger conductor only as “the K man”.

Mendelberg’s Orchestra had a formidable reputation stretching back to their championship of Mahler and the recording attests to their virtuosity and the recognisable corporate sound. Karajan takes advantage of this and the recording engineers produce a reading that’s noteworthy.

It’s astonishing also because we have so many recordings of this work from this conductor. And Karajan performed it in concert 143 times (according to the HvK Archive). And the results are remarkably consistent. 

The opening of his first recording has somewhat boomy timpani, strings are rather blocky but agile and fiery but very clear and the woodwinds are clear as a bell.

Karajan’s first performance of Brahms’s first Symphony was in 1934 and this performance is his first on disc in Amsterdam in 1942.

It’s interesting to encounter this performance and recording because over his long lifetime Karajan was very consistent in his performance of this work.

It’s also the first and only recording which he made with the Amsterdam concert bow Orchestra and it was presumably in the concept ball Hall although there are some indications that The microphones were moved about (or possibly the musicians) because even in mono sound the perspectives change somewhat. The virtues of the Amsterdam Orchestra are many and legendary there deposed former conductor William Mengelberg trained the Orchestra to the highest standard probably the highest standard in Europe and the Hall is marvellous now as it was then. Rose’s first symphony really is a desperate response to the composers. Need to face up to Beethoven’s Legacy in the genre.

Karajans method with this work is pretty straightforward. He introduces as much energy as possible which had some flows throughout the peace but When he turns on the gas it’s exacting in terms of attack and glorious in terms of contra Peel contrapuntal effect. It’s perhaps odd that this partnership creates such a fierce interpretation in a conductor so young and unexperienced. At the same time Karajan seems to be very well trained in the art of balance and tone despite his scarce record outside Germany at this time.

The recording is very good and especially because it was made under difficult circumstances in the middle of armed conflict on the continent. The Naxos of this performance which I think was first issued in a box set of early Karajan recordings, is very good and they sides are not audibly different and the engineering to a better modern sound is marvellous and I think a little better than The DG recording.

The performance itself is quite elastic with quite a lot of snap and some dreamy string playing and distinctive woodwinds. The brass are a little recessed except as we get to the conclusion of the peace and a Tim whilst a distant at times when a gentle rumble is required they show up at the set pieces.

The 1st movement The turbulent first movement is finally charged and paste and recorded. It remains the case that Karajan’s alertness to the rising tensions within the peace very effective. Karajan does not take the root of Clemperer or foot angler making the case for a clash of Titans. Karajans trick is to build up the pressure to fever pitch and release it in those last and later pages of the last movement.

It’s worth running on the beauty of the Amsterdam Orchestra. There really is some beautiful playing and the corporate reputation is cemented though probably not without coercion by the military cultural administrators.

It’s particularly saddening that in one of Karajans last performances in Britain one critic Li and his approach to the finale of this symphony as a jackbooted march. Nationalism in music is often misplaced. The truth is even in his last performance Karajan was able to wind up the tension and drama of this work beyond most I have heard and I heard Carrie Anne perform this beast live in London the year before he died.

Karajan could be a rather angry conductor Asif to find a way of resolving Brais lyrical and the Cleary mode in a way which matched his latest symphonies but this was Brasis first Symphony which had been brewing for many years and in a couple of forms. Factors it’s eventual inclination became a cool card for Karajan who played concerts (143 containing this symphony) and a significant number of recordings most of which are very good.

The middle movements are perhaps more browns in Van Beethoven but there’s a good deal of beauty and drama in the pages.