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BRAHMS: SYMPHONIES COMPLETE (Deutsche Grammophon; 4 LPs). Herbert von Karajan's greatest strength lies in the romantic repertory, and one would expect an outstanding set of performances, especially following his recent highly successful recording of the nine Beethoven symphonies. The Berlin Philharmonic sounds as lustrous as ever, and there are wonderful, broad, sensuous swells of melody. But Von Karajan too often masks structure with sonority, allows the pulse to waver and then summons portentous climaxes that turn out to be no more substantial than giant thunderheads with more noise than content...
...PARIS BURNING? by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. The absorbing story of Hitler's determined, demented plot to blast the city of Paris to "a blackened field of ruins" rather than see it liberated. Following orders, General Dietrich von Choltitz went so far as to plant the explosives. But then he obeyed his conscience instead of his Fiihrer and delivered the city to the Allies...
Public betting pools and slot machines are common throughout Germany as well, but the real romance is still in the wheel of fortune. Explains Carl-Alexander von der Groeben, promotion manager at Bad Neuenahr: "Somehow we are still surrounded by the ancient aura of being socially exclusive, and just a little bit illicit. You can see it in the face of the grocer's wife, who comes in and looks around to see if anyone there knows...
Even Hitler knew he would need an exceptionally loyal man to carry out his orders. He was sure he had found that man in General Dietrich von Choltitz. The stubby, impassive Prussian had led the blitzkrieg on Rotterdam, and later, on the Eastern front, had earned the reputation of a "smasher of cities," starting with Sevastopol which he had leveled for Hitler on Hitler's orders. He was the scion of a Prussian family that in three generations as officers had never disobeyed an order. On Aug. 7, 1944, Hitler summoned Von Choltitz, put him in command...
Gift to Humanity. Is Paris Burning? is the extraordinary story of what happened in the next 19 days before Paris was taken by the Allies. The authors, an American and a French journalist, spent three years in research and in interviewing the participants, both major (notably Von Choltitz himself) and minor, a score of whose private stories are recounted in detail. But above all, it is the absorbing story of Von Choltitz' lonely drama of decision...