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Review title: Not quite up to its reputation
Product review: I can't say that I am as fond of this recording as are the other reviewers. The recording sound is overwrought in my view -- perhaps due to the recording location, perhaps due to an unnecessarily atmospheric reverberation added in the final DG production process.Tempi are also problematic, with the haunting Beim Schlafengehen so slow as to make the overall line fragmented, and the final Im Abendrot taken at a breathless pace. (Nothing quite like a poem to Death to leave you breathless!) And Karajan's overemphasis on the strings (it could just be the recording and mixing) means that orchestra color is downplayed (and this when listened to on B&W reference speakers).I still prefer Schwarzkopf. There's a measured sadness to her recording with Szell, and it is that underlying emotional character, and not silvery lines and overdone string section, that in the end renders these songs as powerful as they can be.
