The Early Lucerne Years 1952-1957

Karajan's New Beginning This release makes Herbert von Karajan's previously unreleased early live recordings from the Lucerne Music Festival available for the first time. Legendary soloists such as Clara Haskil and Géza Anda, Robert Casadesus and Nathan Milstein perform. The Lucerne International Music Festival was the first organizer outside Austria to engage Karajan after his performance ban and denazification, allowing him to return to the international stage. For almost four decades, from 1948 to 1988, he would leave his mark on the festival. His annual guest appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker (from 1958 onwards) enjoyed cult status. But already in the decade before, which is documented in this edition, Karajan had delighted both audiences and critics in Lucerne and quickly grew into a formative artistic personality alongside Furtwängler. The live recordings from Lucerne range from Bach's Concerto for two pianos BWV 1061 to Honegger's Symphonie liturgique. The exciting, rhythmically tightly shaped interpretations show him as an extremely form-conscious conductor with great expressive power. However, he also appears as a sensitive and at the same time very creative accompanist. The sound of the live recordings has been carefully restored. The trilingual booklet contains essays on Karajan's career start in the post-war years and numerous previously unpublished photographs.