At the concert on May 29, 1969 in Moscow compositions of Bach and Shostakovich were performed. Already at that time Karajan’s rendition of Bach might have seemed to the audiences as rather out-of-date: performances of Bach’s music by instrumental groups akin to those of his era (i.e. chamber orchestras) at that time were already then almost completely standard. This type of Bach was also heard in Moscow in performance by the Chamber Orchestra of Rudolf Barshai. However, Bach, “enforced” by a weighty pompous sound of string instruments possessed, in our view, in the hands of Karajan no less amount of appeal. The flawlessness of the lines of texture, characteristic of the Baroque period, the thought out and polished contrasts of the refrains and episodes of forms of the separate movements that were so indispensible for concertos for strings, along with that highest degree of performance of the numerous soloists together with the orchestra bring distinction to this performance. Unfortunately, the press deemed the performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto “formal and not remarkable in any way.”
Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, the performance of which has caused so much debate, was perceived for the most part as a “lyrical drama”. The critics heard in this performance “a certain cold madness, a rage of a whirling Scherzo,” “the mighty drama of the heroic Finale which continuously set out dancing, radiated by the kind smile of folk humor” (M. Sokolsky). However, a much more adequate response to the performance was the reaction of the composer himself, who at that time was in Leningrad and was able to hear this program in the Large Hall of the Philharmonic Society: for a long time he sat silently in his lodge without moving, completely overcome with the force with which his creation was sounded out, not noticing the loud ovations of the hall, applauding the conductor while standing up…
