A lost world

The encounter of two geniuses, each with foreknowledge of approaching death. The universality of Tchaikovsky here achieved its fullness as the work opens deep insights into the human soul and as his symphonic mastery here appears optimal. Karajan transcends the notes by a height of view, an ability to draw trajectories over time that has hardly been matched before and after him. His analytical mind does not overwrite the detail and every second makes sense (the ostinato basses, the sounds from beyond the grave ... final). Apollo and Dionysus goes perfectly in with a heady sound that is not an end in itself but liberates melodramas that sticks to the work. It is so rare as to reach this ultimate balance between the intellect and the senses, whether for the composer as for the performer.
Another feature that stands out from its competitors Karajan: the actual width of the incredible phrasing that "brucknérise" Tchaikovsky (the incredible power of the 3rd movement) without anything oter him its specificity: everything here is pulled up.
A disc that joined the pantheon of the last recordings of Karajan in Vienna, the equal of the Symphony No. 5 Similarly, 7 and 8 of Bruckner, the Brahms German Requiem and the fabulous concert of the new year 1987 as the last witness of a lost culture.