Conductor Herbert von Karajan is associated mainly with the Deutsche Grammophon label, but he also made a significant number of recordings for EMI (now released by Warner Classics). These have gone in and out of circulation, so it’s good to see the 1980 album Karajan in Paris enjoying a renaissance. It kicks off with a swaggering account of the “Marche hongroise” from Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, with snorting brass detail from a revved-up Berlin Philharmonic. Chabrier's España highlights the orchestra's swashbuckling virtuosity, Karajan injecting an element of nervous energy rarely heard in this generally happy-go-lucky music. There's delicacy in the playing, too, as the balletic woodwind solos in the “Menuet” from Suite No. 2 of Bizet's L’Arlésienne gracefully demonstrate. The ballet music from Gounod’s opera Faust is also included, with the swaggering “Variations de Cléopâtre” and a blistering “Danse du Phryné” providing sharp reminders of the raw power Karajan was capable of eliciting from his superlative Berlin players.