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Rating: 
Summary: Superlative recording
Review: This DVD recording of the Alpine Symphony by Strauss is amazing. Having had his release on the Karajan Gold edition for a while, I thought it would be good to pick up yet another Karajan interpretation. The Berlin Philharmonic play beautifully especially at the section following the storm. Karajan appears to be completely overcome by the passionate BPO strings. I would dare say Karajan gave this music his all to prove how valuable this piece is in the repetoir. The storm sequence is wonderfully played. I wish the cameraman could have captured a shot of the wind machine...as i have never seen one before. Other than that though there are some fabulous shots of Karajan's conducting, strings, brass, woodwinds, ect. The only neglected section is the percussion section. The picture appears clear, and the sonics are great in my opinion. The music itself really packs a wollop and deserves to be played on a quality surround sound system. This is my introduction to the Karajan Legacy Series and i am very impressed with this recording of the Alpine Symphony.
Rating: 
Summary: A DVD of Strauss' work worth grabbing.
Review: This is my first Karajan DVD experience. The first shock I got watching this DVD is the hue/saturation of the picture. I never thought the floors of Philharmonie looked like Mahogany of some sort. The whole picture has a darker hue compared to previous videos of Philharmonie where it has light and bright hue. On the other hand, the sharpness of the picture pleasently surprises me and the sound is top-notch, especially with Dolby Digital 5.1 feature. I own Karl Bohm's Eine Alpensinfonie and no doubt I look forward to Karajan's interpretation. Throughout the whole film, thankfully the strings did not dominate the orchestra as usual, although the winds are still a bit weak and rarely distinctive. I still relish Bohm's version where the winds are prominent and characterful and his "impressionistic" treatment of each movement. In this film, I don't hear the clarinets imitating the Scottish bagpipes in "The Ascent" and the horn fanfare are too loud in the same movement whereas in Bohm's version, there's an offstage effect. To sum it up, whereas in Bohm's version, he scales the Alpine heights with his listeners, Karajan merely observes and imagine how he did it from afar. However, Karajan makes it up with weight, drama and extra "oomph" that Bohm's version lack. I would advice you to own this DVD just for the ferocious Thunderstorm scene. There's also the usual richness of the Berliner's strings to look forward to.
Rating:
Summary: "like a musician playing his instrument"
Review: This is the best recording of Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony.
Here's why:
It is a stunning piece of music--an auditory journey up an alpine mountain, complete with sunrise and sunset, and even an impressive, powerful mountain storm.
Herbert von Karajan shaped the Berlin Philharmonic into perhaps the best orchestra ever. Von Karajan shows how, like a musician, a great conductor "plays" an orchestra as if it were his instrument.
This DVD allows you to see, up close, the conducting details and nuances of body language which get so much more out of the orchestra.
The DVD format also allows you to check back with the program titles to verify what the music is describing.
The photography and sound recording could not be better.
You will have a better seat, a better view, than anyone at any concert.
This is an opportunity to see a great conductor perform a great musical work on his personal instrument, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
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