In the May of 1973 Giulini's Berlin programme was built around Slav composers. It opened with the Prelude to Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, followed by the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Korean violinist Kyung-Wha Chung, born in 1948, who was making her début with the Berlin Philharmonic. The concert ended with the Symphony No.7 by Dvor?ák. As Klaus Geitel put it in Die Welt on 12 May, the colours were not burnished until they resembled picture postcards: "Giulini's honesty and seriousness invests his interpretations with a symphonic gravity that totally rejects flirting with effects, tempting though they are. This imparted a calm serenity and lustrous beauty to the Prelude to Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina." In Dvor?ák's Seventh Symphony Giulini had once again displayed the energy that powerfully synthesised the form and created a firm foundation for the drive and inspiration of his interpretations. This was due to his artistic vehemence which, "rather than construing completeness from small components appears to strike out in the opposite direction. In the end the overall view of the work reveals the significance of the details." Even in the '70s Dvor?ák's Seventh was no standard item in our programmes, being overshadowed by the popular Ninth (From the New World ) and the familiar Eighth. Yet the work substantially extends the image of the Czech composer. As Gottfried Eberle put it in the Tagesspiegel on 12 May, it was not just his preoccupation with folklore or the example of Brahms; there were also obvious traces of Wagner's harmonies and Bruckner's symphonic style, particularly in the Scherzo and Finale. This resulted in a problem of form and structure for which Giulini had found a thrilling solution by letting the natural impetus of the music swing freely yet never allowing the symphonic texture to relax for a moment. Eberle's colleague Wolfgang Schimmel stated in Der Abend that the Berlin Philharmonic appeared to enjoy working with Giulini and that their playing was unrivalled. From the booklet note by Helge Grünewald
