Perhaps Karajan's, like Haitink's, is 'Germanic' in its richly sounded lower voices, but they are essential for, at the very least, a realization of Debussy's full aquatic imagery. Karajan occasionally encourages overpowering tone from his Berlin violins, and I've seen his reading criticized for being unidiomatically 'Germanic' a reaction I don't really understand-assuming that 'Germanic' is to be understood as a (somewhat racist) simile for 'heavy'-as Karajan's 1964 La mer is among the most fleet on disc (mostly closer than Haitink's to Debussy's often surprisingly fast indications of tempo). Significantly Haitink opts for the muted tones of the celesta rather than the brighter (and more usual) glockenspiel. In both conductors' hands, La mer emerges firmly as animpressionist masterpiece if there is anything that eludes projection or sharpness of focus, you sense that it is intended, not accidental (nor attributable to analogue recording parameters). Listening again in tandem with my first choice, the 1964 Karajan on DG Galleria, there is a similar concern for refinement and fluidity of gesture, for a subtle illumination of texture and both display a colourist's knowledge and use of an individual-but always apt-variety of orchestral tone and timbre. When I surveyed the available recordings of La mer for the January 1993 Gramophone Collection, Haitink's 1976 recording had just been deleted, and I wrote then that, had it been available, it would have been a front-runner.
All considerations-minutes for money, performance, recording, documentation-make this package a genuine bargain.
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