Brahms - Hungarian Dances

A light interlude, but great fun. After being on a CD diet for a while, the recently auditioned Stravinsky/Silvestri LP wetted my appetite for the vitality of good old vinyl. I picked a selection of Hungarian Dances on a delightful vintage LP recorded by Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic (a bargain I picked up for 1 euro at Pêle-Mêle in Brussels, but the Keith Monks has thankfully worked its magic on it). John Hunt's discography ('Philharmonic Autocrat') learns me that the recording date was September 4, 1959. Karajan works his way through the dances at breakneck speed, sometimes a little too impetuous for my taste. And it's a typically stilized approach that keeps the rustic charactar of this music at bay. But that doesn't detract from the validity of this interpretation. And there's no denying this is brilliant playing from the BPO. The sound is very good, with only tutti towards the end of the disc sounding a little constricted. I love the layered textures of the strings and the grainy tone of the woodwinds as only vinyl seems to be able to reveal.

Well, maybe it's not only the vinyl. I also listened to a competing version on LP: Abbado's digital recording of the full set of Hungarian Dances with the Vienna Philharmonic (1983). After listening to the Karajan I found the Abbado rather urbane, partly because of the rather more sedate tempos. But my impression will likely also relate to the more generic character of this early digital recording. Anyway I enjoyed this rambunctious little romp with these old warhorses.