Karajan Forever 2008 consists of 40 selections from the maestro's catalog, amounting to a generous greatest-hits package. As the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for three decades, Karajan brought his interpretations of Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern masterpieces to a wide audience. The great composers -- Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Verdi, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Mahler -- and much of their music will be familiar even to beginning classical listeners. A few ubiquitous pieces, like Pachelbel's Canon and gigue in D major and the spurious Albinoni Adagio in G minor, might make it seem like too many other compilations, though the album is otherwise evened out with a handful of less frequently anthologized pieces, such as the Waltz from Gounod's Faust. This is a good introduction to Karajan and the exceptional recordings he made with the Berlin Philharmonic in its heyday.
© TiVo