Arts Documentary with no narration published by Unitel in 2008 - English language
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A "triumph of remembrance," wrote the daily "Die Welt" in its online service following a stirring concert that left its audience hovering between hushed reverence and deafening exultation. The Golden Hall of Vienna's Musikverein was the dazzling venue for the live recording of one of four concerts given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa and with Anne-Sophie Mutter. The series began in Berlin's Philharmonie before going on to Paris, Lucerne and Vienna, where it culminated on 28 January. And there, in Vienna, Karajan's "Berliner" never sounded better, evoking "a time which self-confidently sought the private and subjective in music, and believed it could find them in the mirror of the works." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
The program begins with Beethoven's Violin Concerto op. 61 performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter, who was discovered by Karajan and first played with the Berlin Philharmonic under his direction at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1977. Her performance glows with a sensuality and ethereal beauty that turn her interpretation into a memorial for two men whom she grew up with, Beethoven and Karajan. As an encore, Mutter plays Bach's Sarabande in D minor "in memoriam Herbert von Karajan," as she announces. Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" is given a powerful, full-bodied account under Seiji Ozawa, who studied under Karajan and was warmly encouraged and supported by the maestro. Here Ozawa lets the Berlin Philharmonic - the orchestra that Karajan headed for over 30 years - revel in the rich, creamy orchestral sound that the maestro cultivated, lush with the savors of all the timbres and colors of this top-class ensemble. It is a concert that commemorates Herbert von Karajan for the ages in a supremely moving manner.
