DG The Original Source Series vinyl reissue—Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor/Berliner Philharmoniker/Herbert von Karajan

There is a lot of young gun revisionism about the qualities of the great Austrian conductor, Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989). I heard one “YouTuber” call him the “Kanye West of conductors”! I’m not sure what the guy meant by that, but considering West is (IMO) one of the greatest boors and musical frauds in history, it couldn’t have been good. Whereas, in comparison, and for me, the amazing Karajan has produced hundreds of great performances, many benchmarks for his chosen repertoire. Strauss, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner among them. His Mahler is also interesting.

There’s no doubt that Mahler is the “it” composer of the past forty years with any live performances pretty well guaranteeing a sellout with the right orchestra/conductor/hall. And whereas Karajan has rightly been criticized for his Nazi past (he was briefly a member of the Nazi Party and was cleared of any illegal activity during his denazification tribunal), and the self-indulgent sonics of many of his recordings (the better your playback equipment, the worse they get—more on why below), I believe his Mahler street cred can stand on his DG recordings of Das Lied Von Der Erde (1982), a fine Symphony No 4 (1982), this Symphony No. 5 (1975), one of the great Mahler 6ths (1978) and indisputably the finest Mahler 9 (1982), his DG live version from the Berlin Festival. His DG studio version is good but lacks the qualities of the live version.

This is my second review of the initial four LPs from Deutsche Grammophon’s entrance into the hot market of all analogue remasters and recuts called “The Original Source”. The four selected DG 4-track tapes (with lots more to come) were sent to the fine people at Berlin’s Emil Berliner Studios, one of the top houses for quality remastering, lathe cutting and recording in the business. Rainer Mallard producer and managing director at Berliner explains the technical aspects of the process here.

Also, The Original Source Series means no tape copies used, no unnecessary devices in the signal path and of course no digital sound processing: pure analogue. This is the shortest possible way from the original master to the cutter head.

Compared to the original releases, the advantages in sound are outstanding: More clarity, more details and better frequency response, as well as less noise, less distortion and less compression.

The LPs are remastered by Rainer Maillard and cut by young wunderkind Sidney Meyer. My copy was flawless—flat, silent and dynamic as hell with no degradation or distortion as we moved from the massive opening “Trauersmarsch” to the orchestration complexities of the “Scherzo” and “Finale”.

The recording took place in 1973 in Dahlem’s Jesus-Christus-Kirche. The church is quite resonant and was a favourite recording space of Karajan.

Here, the resonance is reined in for the remastering but the majestic power of the Philharmoniker is let loose by Maillard and Meyer. From the opening trumpet to the final downbeat, you’ll hear this famous performance anew. Both execution and sonics. Win, win. I would not put this release on par with the new Abbado/LSO Fairfield Hall Le Sacre du Printemps from the same series (so brilliant, it made our Audiophilia Dream List ©), but it’s leagues above the original.

The Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Dahlem Berlin

I’m not quite sure why this Mahler 5 has not received the praise as a performance it deserves. Maybe the shadow of Decca and Solti loomed too large with equally great playing, another straightforward interpretation (let’s be honest, much of this symphony plays itself) but with far superior sound (when the Chicago horns return with their huge fanfare just before the finale coda (4 bars before 32), you can hear (see) the engineer yank down the sliders in fear of equipment destruction!).

I’m hearing the new DG Original Series Kleiber/Beethoven 7 is incredible, both sound and performance (I have the DG digitally remastered vinyl reissue) and the new Original Series Emil Gilels Schubert Trout Quintet is also receiving great press, but it’s up against another Decca foe, the Speakers Corner reissue. I have it and it is exceptional.

As for this wonderful Mahler LP set, the soundstage and imaging have been cleared up so much, you can hear how Karajan reorchestrates the opening by doubling the trumpet (I bet the principal trumpet just loved that!) at pick up into bar 15, the ppp snare drum rolls throughout in the the left rear of the hall (try and hear that imaging precision on an original) and the constant imitation of string bass pizzicato by the tuba. Remarkable fidelity. And a universe away from Karajan’s recorded sound concept.

The playing is sublime with the aforementioned straight ahead interpretation. The recording now has great bass—with limitless dynamics (wait ‘till you hear the bass drum rolls). More of it and so much clearer. And all the solo work, from opening trumpet, the horn obligato in the “Scherzo”, the spectacular timpani, to all the incredible tuttis, now have sonics to match the playing. And in well recorded orchestral terms, it doesn’t get much better than this. For a perfect example of Berlin precision with recording incision, try the opening of the tricky second movement—super tight whether loud or in micro dynamics.

Some of the huge tuttis can sound a little overwhelmed—there’s only so much a remastering engineer can do—but I don’t hear bright strings, a criticism that some folks have made (the string choir and harp in the “Adagietto” are sublime). There is one oddity I did not hear on the original, CD or stream, but here it is, clear as a clunker on the recut. The final tutti downbeat has the bass drum beater/or reverb from the acoustic late on the final downbeat. It surprised the hell out of me. But it’s there.

Other than that, more heroics from the trumpets in the finale (which Karajan highlights and revels in) will erase any memories of upcoming sloppy percussion (high C# fff a bar before 33 is slowed down and thrilling). In fact, the corporate sound is immensely satisfying. I can imagine some of the retirees from the orchestra hearing this new recut. Especially the clarity of all the players as Karajan doubles the speed and with an additional accelerando in the finale’s coda.

As such, a very hearty recommendation from me. Not quite up to Dream List level, but fans of Karajan, Mahler, and the very best in orchestral playing can purchase this set knowing the Karajan recording curse has been lifted but with his particular performing genius intact. And how!

Further information: DG The Original Source

Herbert von Karajan.