Karajan and Shostakovich's 10th symphony

Karajan is not one of my very favourite conductors - I agree with the common view that he smooths the rough edges from a work and the orchestral sound is too blended. He is at his best, again a common opinion, in late romantic works. His personal past, and philosophy, is a real turn off.However listening to his second, 1981, recording of Shostakovich's 10th symphony this is a work he does have the wave length of - including a savage second movement. Not sure why he gets this particular work but he does.Again to give Karajan his due his fight to get Sabine Meyer to be the first woman to play regularly in the Berlin Philarmonic was highly progressive - and his musical judgement has of course been vindicated by her tremendous subsequent reputation. Clearly a number of contradictions in Karajan - showing again that actuality, all the elements of a situation, cannot be reduced to the overall character of it.