Overtures & Intermezzi.(Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra)(Product/Service Evaluation)

Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. EMI 7243 5 74764 2 3.

While so many other classical recording companies are cutting back severely on their output or curtailing production altogether, it's reassuring to see EMI maintaining a healthy monthly release schedule of new and reissued material. In this case, it's reissued stuff, but it's among the best there is.

Karajan did most of his recording during the sixties, seventies, and eighties with DG, but he always keep his ties open with EMI, having signed a contract with them all the way back in the forties, which continued almost exclusively through the fifties and sporadically ever after. The earliest overtures and intermezzi contained on this album derive from 1960 and 1976, but most of it is from the early eighties.

The items include Strauss's Gypsy Baron Overture, Massenet's "Meditation" from Thais, Cherubini's Anacreon Overture, Weber's Der Freischutz Overture, Schmidt's Notre Dame Intermezzo, Puccini's Suor Angelica and Manon Lescaut Intermezzi, Mascagni's L'amico Fritz Intermezzo, Humperdink's Hansel und Gretel Overture, and Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture. As usual, they're ...