Karajan chooses a fairly brisk, business-like tempo at the outset of the Third Symphony, and there's little lingering over individual phrases. But then he softens a little at the horn solo (3'57'' letter G), so that more feeling of warmth enters the performance. Yet as a whole the first movement is treated just a shade brusquely: it's a wise, experienced reading, as one would expect, but also somewhat short-winded and impatient. The omission of the repeat contributes to an impression that the movement is given a trifle less stature than normal. In the Andante Karajan again presses forward just a fraction too hard, and some of the movement's reflective spaciousness is lost. But then first and second violins are given their head in their long soaring melody (6'10'' letter F), and from that point until the end of the movement the playing is satisfyingly expressive. The third movement is shaped well, but seems just a shade non-commital and lacking in spirit, and while there is some energy in the last movement Karajan's conducting seems somewhat effortful and laboured by his own standards, and even the coda rather lacks feeling and atmosphere.
I feel sure that given a better recording Karajan's performance would seem more attractive, but the balance is slightly too far forward, and there is a grainy, slightly shrill, clotted quality in the sound which does not flatter the BPO's sonority. The Tragic Overture was originally a fill-up to Karajan's recording of Brahms's Double Concerto with Mutter and Meneses. Here the sound is a little more ingratiating, and the performance somewhat more free in spirit, though as was his wont Karajan speeds up for the middle section against the indication of the score.
In the Fourth Symphony's first movement Karajan moulds the music very effectively at an ideal, flowing tempo. But there's not quite the warmth or sense of affection that he once brought to this music, and expression seems somewhat at arm's length—until a good way into the movement, that is, when the emotional temperature does rather increase. It's a question mainly of accents being pointed with less sharpness than they should be, and rhythms which are rather lacking in vitality. The slow movement is nicely paced and phrased with a certain degree of warmth, but immediacy of communication is not quite present; the music does not speak out as it should. The third movement is impressively brought off, but even here the spirit of the music is conveyed less vividly than in previous Karajan recordings and in the finale the conducting is again just a little laboured, with accents not stressed sharply enough. Some of the movement's episodes are skilfully shaped, but ultimately the impression is of a somewhat undramatic prosaic reading. Again, the recording does not help Karajan, for the sound is a bit constricted and lacking in warmth, and the balance seems slightly unnatural.
It will be seen that playing times for the two new Karajan discs are rather short, and indeed if DG had not reissued the Tragic Overture both symphonies could have been accommodated on one disc, as is the case in Klemperer's account of these symphonies. These are newly reissued on EMI's mid-price Studio label (to be reviewed later), where a fine, virile account of the Fourth Symphony is partnered by a slightly less vivid reading of the Third. Good versions of the latter are, in fact, thin on the ground and Walter's wise, masterly CBS version still leads the field comfortably, though if you need up-to-the-minute recording quality, Dohnanyi's sound, sensible Teldec/ASV account will provide much satisfaction. Karajan's 1955 recording of the Fourth Symphony on EMI Studio (reissued on CD last year), very well recorded, shows this conductor in much fresher form than in his new version, but Carlos Kleiber's DG version has greater drive, passion and mastery than any other performance currently available.'