Ahora, el sello Audite pone por primera vez a disposición del público unas grabaciones inéditas del director austriaco durante sus tempranas actuaciones en el Festival de Lucerna entre los años 1952 y 1957. Los registros, restaurados con la excelencia y el mimo propios del sello alemán, se reúnen en una caja de 3 CD [...]

Following their recordings of Tasso, the Dante Symphony and the abandoned opera Sardanapalo, Karabits and the Weimar orchestra turn to a work which is closely associated with the city: the Faust Symphony was premiered in Weimar in September 1857, for the inauguration of the Goethe–Schiller Monument which stands in front of the Court Theater. It's followed here by another Goethe-inspired work, the Mephisto Waltz No. 3 (orchestrated by Liszt's disciple Alfred Reisenauer and Karabits himself).

Hay en este recital al menos una obra maestra, Mythes op. 30 (1915), tres movimientos del compositor polaco Karol Szymanowski, con episodios inspirados en la Fuente de Aretusa, en la alegoría de Narciso y en las Dríadas y Pan. Obra de primera madurez y vocación viajera hacia el fascinante sur, está interpretada con perspicacia (además de virtuosismo) por el violín de Stepan Hempel, acompañado por Daniel Seroussi. Es el momento culminante del CD, que está precedido por la versión de 1925 para violín y piano de las Cinq mélodies, compuestas por Prokofiev en 1920 para voz y piano, pensando en la soprano Nina Koshetz, ucraniana. Eran sus tiempos americanos, cuando llegó a Estados Unidos para comerse el mundo. En la escala de niveles artísticos, las Mélodies podrían considerarse detrás del tríptico de Szymanowski. Sorprende la versión para violín y piano (transcripción de Paul Kochanski) de la temprana Pavana para una infanta difunta de Ravel, y queda ahí, en el corazón del recital, como pieza encantadora y menor. Hay una rareza, no desconocida: la Fantaisie de Olivier Messiaen, descubierta mucho después de su muerte en sus archivos, hace pocos años, en 2007. Era la época poco anterior a la guerra, cuando estaba casado con Claire Delbos (Mi), que algo más tarde sufriría una larga enfermedad hasta morir en 1959. Y es una de las pocas obras de cámara de Messiaen, oscurecidas todas por el Cuarteto para el fin del Tiempo. Para concluir este recital que parece ir de una guerra a otra, Hempel y Seroussi eligen las cuatro animadas piezas separadas de la música incidental de Korngold para un montaje de Mucho ruido y pocas nueces, de Shakespeare (1920). Así, el recital mantiene un cierto equilibrio, en el que destaca la lectura de Mythes, sin que desmerezca el resto de un bello recital.

Frühe Live-Aufnahmen mit Herbert von Karajan aus den Jahren 1952-57 hat das Lucerne Festival veröffentlicht. Das Besondere: Karajan steht hier nicht am Pult der bei ihm üblichen Orchester, sondern muss mit dem Schweizerischen Festspielorchester "Vorlieb nehmen" – einer Elitevereinigung Schweizer Profi-Musiker seit den 40er Jahren. Es gibt Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms und Honegger sowie großartige Solisten wie Clara Haskil, Robert Casadesus und Nathan Milstein.
Fragt sich nur, ob Karajan neben "sich selbst" bestehen kann?

Barocke Vokalraritäten, davon viele Ersteinspielungen, präsentiert das Label audite auf zwei CDs, denen der ausgezeichnete Countertenor Alex Potter seine Stimme leiht.

Exquisites Repertoire, zusammen mit dem agilen Ensemble e.g.baroque exquisit realisiert.

Immediacy, energy and passion combine in equal measure to make this one of the highlights of the box. [...] For those wanting to delve more deeply into the maestro’s postwar rise to the top, this is essential listening.

Liszt's orchestral portraits of Faust, Marguerite and Mephistopheles positively leap off the page in this vital, richly characterised account of the Goethe-inspired symphony: the Weimar brass glow and growl in the opening movement depicting Faust's torment, principal oboe and viola are on eloquent form when portraying Marguerite's innocence, and the devilish scherzo is given with dazzling clarity. Boris Lyatoshinsky's 1955 symphonic poem Grazhyna (which Karabits has previously recorded in Bournemouth) looks like a non sequitur on paper, but the kinship with Liszt's soundworld is striking.

‘What would the history of music look like if Goethe had not written his Faust dramas?’ It’s a good question, posed at the beginning of the liner notes to this new release, but the writer could equally have been asked where music would be without the phenomenon of Liszt. Wagner (and all the long shadows he cast) would have been impossible without the music of his father-in-law Liszt, and what might be called ‘Wagnerian’ harmonies (and Leitmotifs) make their presence strongly felt in the Faust Symphony, premiered under the composer’s own baton in Weimar in 1857.

Liszt’s connections with the city ran deep, so it is hardly surprising to hear how even today the Staatskapelle Weimar sounds steeped in his music. The orchestra’s former music director Kirill Karabits has immersed himself in Liszt too, also completing Alfred Reisenauer’s orchestration of the Mephisto Waltz No. 3 and recording it for the first time. In the Faust Symphony, he handles the sprawling and discursive first movement impressively, moving between rumination and headlong energy in this character sketch of Faust. Portraits of Gretchen (full of delicacy) and Mephistopheles follow, and the added apotheosis with male chorus and tenor soloist (Airam Hernández singing with heft) makes for a grandly affirmative ending.

‘What would the history of music look like if Goethe had not written his Faust dramas?’ It’s a good question, posed at the beginning of the liner notes to this new release, but the writer could equally have been asked where music would be without the phenomenon of Liszt. Wagner (and all the long shadows he cast) would have been impossible without the music of his father-in-law Liszt, and what might be called ‘Wagnerian’ harmonies (and Leitmotifs) make their presence strongly felt in the Faust Symphony, premiered under the composer’s own baton in Weimar in 1857.

Liszt’s connections with the city ran deep, so it is hardly surprising to hear how even today the Staatskapelle Weimar sounds steeped in his music. The orchestra’s former music director Kirill Karabits has immersed himself in Liszt too, also completing Alfred Reisenauer’s orchestration of the Mephisto Waltz No. 3 and recording it for the first time. In the Faust Symphony, he handles the sprawling and discursive first movement impressively, moving between rumination and headlong energy in this character sketch of Faust. Portraits of Gretchen (full of delicacy) and Mephistopheles follow, and the added apotheosis with male chorus and tenor soloist (Airam Hernández singing with heft) makes for a grandly affirmative ending.