Notes and Editorial Reviews
No one really gets within hailing distance of Karajan's account of the Prokofiev Fifth.
Karajan's forays into twentieth-century repertoire, though limited in extent, have invariably been blazingly successful, whether it is his classic set of music of the Second Viennese School, his fabulous Honegger record, celebrated recordings of Nielsen's Fourth, Mahler's Ninth, or Shostakovich's Tenth, or this famous record of Prokofiev's Fifth made in Berlin in September 1968. When the record first appeared Trevor Harvey was stunned not only by the virtuosity of the playing but also by its intelligence, sensitivity, and blazing commitment. An old Koussevitsky long-deleted mono RCA recording is sometimes mentioned in connection with
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the Karajan but, musically and technically, no one really gets within hailing distance of Karajan's account.
I thought the recording a bit bright and glassy at first, but one adjusts and it is really very good, even if the Classical Symphony with which it is now sensibly coupled is recorded with slightly more ease and elegance. And it is ease and elegance—Karajan at his sprucest, relishing Prokofiev's urbanity and mordant wit—that characterize the performance of the earlier work. There have probably been even keener-edged performances of the outer movements but the slow movement has rarely, if ever, been better done. What a pity Karajan has not recorded more Prokofiev. His Sixth might have been sensational and to judge by the playing here in the symphony's scherzo he was born to conduct Romeo and Juliet. But his repertory is already huge and no man can be expected to do everything, not even Karajan. We must be grateful for what we have.
-- Gramophone [4/1988]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Symphony no 5 in B flat major, Op. 100 by Sergei Prokofiev
Conductor:
Herbert von Karajan
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1944; USSR
Date of Recording: 09/1968
2.
Symphony no 1 in D major, Op. 25 "Classical" by Sergei Prokofiev
Conductor:
Herbert von Karajan
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1916-1917; Russia
Date of Recording: 01/1981
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