Decca Classics

"Karl Böhm was one of the most significant conductors of the 20th century. His clear-cut conducting style was characterized by a deep gravity with emphasis on rhythmic, textural and structural clarity. He conducted without any grand gestures or extraneous flourishes. Audiences and listeners were made aware not only of the power of his interpretative ideas but also of his meticulousness and precision. Böhm’s qualities as a conductor were his detail-orientated determination, his flexibly articulated fidelity to the score, his grasp of the bigger picture, his musical temperament and his emotional sovereignty. All of this was, of course, the result of rigorous work in the rehearsal room, where he placed considerable demands on his players. Singers loved him (for the elasticity with which he was able to support and guide them by breathing in perfect time with them), many orchestral players feared him (he could be disagreeable to say the least), but above all, he was respected. In his autobiography ‘Ich erinnere mich ganz genau’ he described in detail his artistic credo: “When I stand in front of an orchestra I try to familiarize the distinct individual artists […] with my ideal image of the score which I shall never achieve, but which I ceaselessly strive to approach. […] One must have a very specific conception of a work of art and convey it in the finest detail to the players at rehearsal, for in art there is nothing that is not important. At the performance itself improvisation or imagination can play a certain part so that the impression of a degree of spontaneity is created. […] As much as I love my profession, there is one thing I am convinced of: how much responsibility the conductor bears at the performance, for it is here that all the threads come together. He decides the tempo, the agogics, in fact the whole atmosphere. […] The most important thing is the will of the composer and the work which is being performed.” This set is the first time his complete recordings for Decca and Philips have been brought together and bears out a style unaffected by fashion or compromise through interpretations of his favourite composers: of Mozart (his “musical patron saint”), Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Richard Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner, Wolf and Weber which earned the epithet “timeless” even in his own lifetime. "