If you are an adherent of Karajan's Verdi, you will certainly enjoy this performance. It has all the characteristics of measured tempos and forceful attack that one expects from him. In its new CD format the sound is greatly improved, which imparts a sense of immediacy I always felt wanting in the LP format. Even if it hasn't quite the range of dynamics of Karajan's later recording (also DG), and certainly not that of Shaw's Gramophone Award-winning version on Telarc/Conifer, the effect of the ''Tuba mirum'', for instance, is pretty impressive.
On the whole I prefer the soloists on this 1973 version to those on its 1985 successor (Tomowa-Sintow, Baltsa, Carreras and van Dam). They are weightier and carry more authority. Ludwig, as on the Giulini/EMI version (4/87), is satisfying in every way. So is Ghiaurov in perhaps the most authoritative of his four recordings of the piece. Cossutta is Italianate, although sometimes a trifle throaty. Freni, then making her way into heavier repertory, sings with fine line and sincere feeling throughout. Chorus and orchestra are responsive to every one of Karajan's detailed wishes. But I still feel that he does sometimes smooth away accents and soften edges in his slightly sanitized reading, while at other times going to dynamic and tempo extremes. At mid price, however, the set is well worth consideration.'