For listeners who like -- even love --
Herbert von Karajan's classic 1965 recording of
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition with the
Berlin Philharmonic and his 1972 recording of
Schumann's Second Symphony with the same orchestra, this disc of his 1956 and 1954 recordings of the same works with the Orchestra di Milano della Radio Italiana and Orchestra de Roma della Radio Italiana will be quite instructive. For one thing, the Milan orchestra plays
Ravel's super-virtuoso arrangement of
Mussorgsky's music with incredible facility and unbelievable intensity. While some might complain that the Italians' pungent winds and blasting brass sounds unidiomatic, they might be hard put to say exactly what would sound idiomatic in music written by a Russian and scored by a Frenchman to be played by an American orchestra. For another thing, the Rome orchestra plays
Schumann's densely scored Second Symphony so that it sounds about as clean and direct as possible. While some might point out that the Italians seem to have a poor grasp of the echt Deutsche
Schumann Second, they might still be relieved to hear the score played with more lyricism and less heaviness. But most importantly, for those who like -- even love --
Karajan's conducting, it may well be a revelation to hear him coax such performances from non-German speaking radio orchestras. Although
Karajan is best known for his later recordings with the
Berlin and
Vienna Philharmonics, as this disc shows, he was also fully capable of creating superb performances even with orchestras unfamiliar with his conducting. Although obviously not a first choice for either work, these performances will still be interesting to those who like -- even love --
Herbert von Karajan. Uriana's monaural, air check recording is clean and clear, if not particularly present.