Sony G90 manual With the sound either way, or with the sound of the Scala, Performances

ing the language of written text), it seems to vio-

late the spirit of the DVD interface to provide no

way to pick a language once, and stick with it.

The Karajan discs also let you choose sur-

round or standard audio. But I’m not impressed

with the sound either way, or with the sound of the Scala

discs, which also offer 5.1 surround, but (and this applies to

Karajan, as well), not convincingly. Yes, it surrounded me, and

provided a momentary high. (“Look, ma! More sound!”) But

the effect wasn’t in the least realistic. We know that it was

faked, not to mince words, in the Karajan releases (see Heidi

Waleson’s piece, in this issue, for Sony Music’s acknowledge-

ment of that), and when I listened, I found I’d choose the

merely “stereo” option to get something even vaguely like the

real spatial layout of an orchestra. The Scala discs – like the

Karajan, transfers from VHS – also have an engineered sur-

round effect, and with no way to turn it off, I had to mute the

rear speakers before I could hear where the singers were on

stage. The surround sound, on both series, was richer, more

full of pomp and circumstance, but much less lifelike.

The Performances:

Not, though, that we’re talking about sound that’s all that

lifelike in the first place. The two Scala discs, especially Adri -

ana (which has refreshing clarity), aren’t all that bad, but the

Karajans are awful. Or let me qualify that. The Karajans, I’m

sure, sound just the way the great conductor wanted them to.

At this late stage of his career, he favored a rich, undifferenti-

ated, beefy orchestral sound, and clearly reveled in every arti-

ficial way to make it even more that way on his recordings.

There’s certainly something impressive about the result, but

not in any way that reminds me of real music. There are won-

derful, pop-production sonic moments, one involving a bass

drum on the Vienna disc that made me feel that I’d descended

to the roots of all the earth. But a bass drum would never

sound that shivery and intimate in a live concert. If you have

any taste for live orchestral music, the sound of these DVDs

will be, at best, severely puzzling.

I might say as much for Karajan’s performances. By one

standard, they’re wonderful. On the Vivaldi disc, he leads the

Berlin Philharmonic; on the others, it’s the Vienna orchestra.

Both orchestras reach the highest levels of achievement, or at

least they do if all you care about is pure technique; their

sound, in a detached, not quite human way, is ravishing. The

performances, for that matter, do everything performances of

these pieces are supposed to do, except maybe touch the

heart. There’s something contrived, almost undifferentiated

about them, as if Karajan looked at all music as some kind of

abstract challenge, and even if he didn’t sacrifice the most

basic musical values, worked to make them sound like him,

not like Dvorákˇ or Vivaldi.

In one way, the Dvorákˇ is the best of the three, because

the music ends up speaking for itself, once you get used to

Karajan’s trademark sheen. There aren’t issues of Baroque

style (which might stop a purist from enjoying the Vivaldi), or

Viennese frivolity. But then, from another point of view, the

New Year’s Concert is the best, because it raises no deep

musical issues, and the sheer virtuosity of the orchestral play-

ing can stand on its own. I’d rank it lowest, though, because

this virtuosity seems almost unhinged, torn away from any

real contact with human life.

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