K San, many thanks for your kind and thoughtful, insightful advise on my question the other day. I really do appreciate for your candid opinion.
Looks like it's more of MY opinion, which I may have to live with on my own ! Your comment on the tuning of the frequency really rings a bell, and my simple question was in fact regarding how far that frequency variation reaches !! There may be 'something' I miss completely, and I should get older and/or wiser to fully appreciate Karajan's "the late period" recordings.
Quite frankly, many of Karajan's re-recorded repertoire in the 80's are out of synch with my own frequency (as you pointed out. But citing Shostakovich 10 was a bit unfair !),
and I think I just wanted to get some kind of confirmation from the ones who heartily appreciate the Karajan phenomena, and I'm happy to get an answer to my quest. For me though, it is a bit surprising that the quite obvious changes of his musical styles over the years do not matter to you a lot. The Giant is still great even while He errs ...
No offense here at all, whatsoever, but just my opinion, at this point of my spiritual process. I may say some time later that all Karajan did before the 80's were just exercises, preparing the 80's output, who knows. Might be something like late Rembrandt or late Monet. I just don't GET it now. Mind you, I still prefer mid-Rembrandt and mid-Monet !!!
One more question, if I can, please. The books I've read on Karajan were Richard Osborne's (A Life in music, a good one), R.C.Bachmann's (the only book on Karajan available in Korean ! a not so good one), and a chapter in H.Matheopoulos book (Maestro, a so-so one), though I've seen a couple of documentaries broadcasted on NHK satellite, and of course many articles. Am wondering which must be YOUR choice among the 'BOOKS' section. Your recommendation of one or two would be highly appreciated.