Herbert von Karajan – Strauss: Tod und Verklarung / Vier letzte Lieder

The recordings of Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic are legendary — as is the interpretation of Richard Strauss’s tone poem “Death and Transfiguration” and his “Four Last Songs,” a reference recording with the singular soprano Gundula Janowitz, released in 1974. Since David Bowie’s confession that this was one of his 25 favorite records, it even achieved cult status far beyond the borders of classical music.

For its 125th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon is releasing legendary recordings in the highest sound quality: the new audiophile vinyl series The Original Source presents outstanding recordings from the 1970s in a whole new sound quality. For this, the renowned Emil Berliner Studios have remastered and edited the original 4-track tapes in 100% analogue quality (AAA) using technologies specially developed for the production of the series. The sonic differences to the original releases are considerable: greater clarity, more subtleties and improvements in frequency response, at the same time less background noise, distortion and compression allow for an audiophile listening experience like never before.

On 180g vinyl records and in a deluxe gatefold edition with original covers and lyrics, the copies of this series are released limited and numbered, accompanied by additional photos and facsimiles of the recording logs and band boxes, plus an article explaining the exact technical background.