MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (with Borodin - Polovtsian Dances)

"Karajan's 1967 recording brings much adour from the glorious Berlin strings in the Andante. The outer movements have great vitality and trust, and the bright percussion transients add to the feeling of zest. Yet Michel Schwalbe's sinuously luxuriant violin solos are still allowed to participate in the narrative." Penguin Guide to Compact Discs.

"Scheherazade was not in Karajan's concert repertoire and he never conducted it live. So he came fresh to it in the studio, and perhaps that is why his 1967 recording sounds so spontaneous in the outer movements - helped by the richly beautiful assumption of the title-role by the orchestra's leader, Michel Schwalbe. The first movement has a great thrust and sweep, the finale is riveting, particularly the shipwreck sequence, which is broadened to a great climax. If the two central movements are less seductively individual than with Beecham, they are marvellously played. There is no doubt about the burst of energy in the central section of II or the sensuality in the strings in III. What is so striking is the improvement in sound in the present remastering, with greater depth in the bass, and a more resonant glow over what is a rather forwardly balanced recording." (Gramophone)

(Rec 1967)