Karajan's latest recording of Don Quixote disappoints me very much, both as an interpretation and as a recording. His earlier accounts of what I regard as Strauss's greatest tone-poem were notable performances, in particular the EMI recording with Rostropovich (ASD3118, 6/76—nla). The playing throughout this new disc is marvellous in every section of the orchestra; the counterpoint of the unaccompanied duetting bassoons in Variation 9, for example, is perfectly balanced, and the impassioned richness of the Berlin strings in the second part of Variation 3 (between figs. 39 and 40) is a glorious sound. My one reservation is the less than pleasing tone (as recorded) of the solo oboe.
But Karajan has markedly changed his approach to this masterpiece in the matter of tempos. Compared with his performances with Rostropovich and with Fournier (DG SLPM139009, 1/67—nla) he takes every variation a fraction more slowly and sometimes more than that. The overall effect is to devitalize the music, to impart a ponderousness which destroys a vital ingredient, the vein of fantasy. These are ''fantastic'' variations, the portrayal of an unhinged mind. Strauss has etched this with unerring skill and no recording in recent years has reflected the true mood of the music more faithfully and enchantingly than Kempe/Tortelier on EMI. Kempe's opening is both galant and grazioso, but Karajan's tempo renders it as preeningly self-conscious. (A tendency to slow tempos also mars the Ozawa/CBS recording.)
As if this were not disappointment enough, the DG engineers have made this one of their 'under the microscope' efforts. We really do hear too much of the score! Not only are the cello and viola recorded in close-up, but each member of the orchestra seems to have an individual microphone. Parts of the score emerge as coarse in texture, the reverse of what Karajan must have intended. The sheep episode, for instance, sounds like a herd of trumpeting elephants (I had to play Kempe's performance to remind myself of the wit and humour in this passage) and the flying horse is jet-propelled.
The Harrell/Ashkenazy version on Decca is better recorded, but its prosaic approach means one cannot recommend it above Karajan, even a Karajan not burning at full intensity. The DG fill-up is Till Eulenspiegel which, again, is recorded with more science than art but survives this treatment more successfully than Don Quixote, perhaps because the conductor's approach steers clearer of preciousness.'