Columbia SAXO 2294: Karajan's Opera Intermezzi Revisited

COLUMBIA SAXO 2294

Herbert von Karajan Conducts Opera Intermezzi

Philharmonia Orchestra

Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Australian pressing, blue/silver label

Matrix numbers: YAX 243-15, 244-1

Back in 2013, when this blog was still in its infancy, I wrote a very brief and not so positive review of the UK Columbia release of this album. I may have been turned off by the musical program, which was less dramatic and less "sonically stunning" than some of the other recordings I was listening to at the time. I didn't keep the album. Fool's folly. Eleven years later, I found this Australian pressing ($13 USD) of the recording with the blue/silver label and what appears to be UK stampers (even a -1 for side 2!). I've managed to acquire a few Australian SAXO pressings and have been hard pressed to find any sonic differences between these and their UK counterparts. Some were actually packaged in UK outer sleeves, while others such as this one were issued in sleeves that were a little smaller in size and came with different cover art. Interestingly, the Australian SAXO pressings all had the blue/silver label until a certain date, after which they carried a later orange label (similar to the third "magic notes" label of the UK pressings).

Somehow, my impressions of this recording were entirely different this time around. I don't know if it's just my musical tastes evolving as I get older or if it's the magic of this particular pressing, but this time I found myself mesmerized by the album. The playing of the Philharmonia is gorgeous. You'll want to make sure you find a clean copy with little to no surface noise since most of the repertoire is very lyrical orchestral music with low to mid level dynamics. Things do get a touch more energetic and climactic with Schmidt's Notre Dame on side 1 and with Berlioz's The Trojans, Royal Hunt and Storm, Act 3 and Granados' Goyescas on side 2. I particularly enjoyed the warmth and sweet sound of the strings. The presentation is a bit more distant, like you're sitting in the middle to rear of the concert hall, and you can get a nice sense of the hall acoustics.