It was high time this splendid performance was transferred to CD, for Karajan's interpretation of Don Quixote is not well represented by his 1987 DG recording, which is eccentrically recorded and is musically rather lacklustre. This 1975 recording, well engineered by EMI if one makes due adjustment for a tendency to a rather prominent bass, has the Berlin Philharmonic and their conductor at their best. Some of their performances at this peak period in their association have been regarded as lacking artistic depth, but this does not apply to their Strauss. No other conductor, but none, has produced such an enraptured appassionato from the strings at bar 361 in the fifth variation.
If for sheer charm and elegance the palm in this work must still go to Kempe, with Tortelier and Rostal (EMI), the combination of Karajan and Rostropovich, with the violist Ulrich Koch an outstanding Sancho Panza, constitutes a formidable challenge. Strauss preferred that the soloists should be orchestral principals but Rostropovich is here in no sense the grand virtuoso taking over the work and turning it into a cello concerto. Instead he assumes a concertante role, but of course no orchestral first cellist would be likely to perform the Vigil and Death scenes in a manner equal to the artistry to be encountered here.'