by James R. Oestreich
New CDs, Old Award
At about the time we were putting the Sony Compact Disc player through its paces for this month's report. Polygram Classics staged a CD demonstration of its own for its regional sales representatives. The player was the first Magnavox deck (produced by parent company Philips) scheduled to hit the American market, the CD-100: simpler and more streamlined than the Sony CDP 101. it is expected to retail in the third quarter of this year for $800-$1.000. The recordings were Deutsche Grammophon CDs-not surprisingly, for the gathering was timed to coincide with the New York performances of Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, and the conductor was on hand to extol the virtues of the revolutionary technology.
Invited to attend, I took the very belated opportunity to present Karajan with the certificate for the 1981 High Fidelity/Inter national Record Critics Award for his DG recording of Wagner's Parsifal. I was also spirited into the second half of a Saturday-morning rehearsal of the Mahler Ninth, where, in the finale. I found an intensity in the playing of which I've never heard the like. When I commented on this to Karajan, he quickly replied, with utter disingenuousness, "Me too!" He expressed regret that he had even called the rehearsal, since one can't expect players to respond like that twice in a day; and indeed, that night's performance, though mightily impressive, didn't show quite the same intensity.
Karajan's recent recording of the work was a strong contender on last year's IRCA list and would have fared even stronger but for the previous Parsifal award. Yet there will be another year. Not one to rest on his raves, Karajan recorded the Ninth again, digitally, just before coming to New York.
(Actually, parts of the earlier recording had also been taped digitally, but he so liked the strictly analog sections that he was loath to redo them then.) Karajan also discussed other upcoming releases, including a Berlin recording of Carmen, with Agnes Baltsa, Jose Carreras, and Jose van Dam. When asked what else he wants to record just now, he responded, "Everything!'
Adleriana
In line with this month's tribute to Glenn Gould. we should note the recent passing of another innovator in the recording of early music. Herman Adler (born 1908 in Ham burg). The many recordings he produced for Musicraft and other labels helped lay the groundwork for the baroque boom of the past quarter-century. Like many another pioneer, however. Adler did not endorse everything done in the name of his cause in later years. His attitude toward at least some current notions of authentic performance practice is delightfully evident in a spoof memorandum from February 1979 that turned up among his effects:
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(High Fidelity magazine, Jan 1983)
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