Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116

A monumental display of orchestral athleticism! In this 1974 recording, Karajan moves away from purely folk-inspired readings to treat Bartók’s testament as a feat of sonic architecture. The conductor famously used the second movement, the Giuoco delle coppie (Game of Pairs), as a supreme test of his orchestra’s discipline, demanding a millimetric, almost supernatural precision from the Berlin woodwinds to highlight the work’s rhythmic ingenuity. Pushing the Berlin Philharmonic to its absolute limit, Karajan proves here that analytical clarity and visceral power can perfectly coexist.