My own preference among Karajan's three Berlin Philharmonic recordings of Don Quixore is for the EMI version with Rostropovich, which has the feel of a live performance. His last version (DG) is marred for me by the eccentric balancing by the sound engineers and also by a lack of voltage in Karajan's interpretation. For those who find Rostropovich a little too free with his dynamics and tempos, this reissued 1966 performance can be strongly recommended. It has transferred magnificently to CD, the sound-quality being exceptionally full and detailed.
The recent EMI mid-price reissue of the 1947 Tortelier/Beecham recording (made in the composer's presence on his last London visit) has come as a reminder of how much this wonderful score benefits from a light touch—both soloist and conductor had quixotic personalities and both understood that these were ''fantastic variations''. No one could call Karajan quixotic and fantasy was not his realm, but he understood the mastery and structure of a Strauss score and even if he inclined to be rather indulgent in the richer more operatic variations—and who would blame him?—his ability to extract every ounce of expressiveness from the orchestration leads to an interpretation that is more overbearing than Beecham's (and Strauss's own—DG nla) but no less valid and memorable. I should aid, of course that the playing of the Berlin Philharmonic is unbelievably fine and that Fournier's noble and elegant performance is ideally complemented by the viola of Giusto Cappone.
Karajan's 1983 Gramophone Award-winning DG recording of Tod und Verklarung has something of the deeper perception that made his Parsifal so moving, but this 1974 performance is very powerful, building most skilfully to the climax and the orchestral playing of the transition passage before the Verklarung is an uncanny example of this conductor's genius for weaving together every strand of texture.'