“Italian Symphony” and Italian opera – “Karajan Digital Library” Vol. 14

“He lifted his baton. And well – there was suddenly a great explosion of sound no one possibly have anticipated. I shall never forget it. It was incredible.”
Karajan about Mascagni conducting a concert

Mascagni, Massenet, Mendelssohn in Deutsche Grammophon’s “Karajan Digital Library”. Few works by Mendelssohn are so very “Mendelssohn” as the “Italian Symphony”. Karajan’s recording of it and the other four symphonies in the early 1970s was his only studio recording and so was the violin concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter. The “Méditation” by Massenet in this set is not with Mutter but with the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, Michel Schwalbé. And there’s not only an “Italian Symphony” but also an entire Italian opera. Karajan’s recording of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” is a classic and is supplemented with the impassioned intermezzo from “L’amico Fritz”.
Read more here.

—  P.R. Jenkins