KLEMPERER conducts Mozart (1954-62) - PABX030

“These are typical of the Klemperer approach to Mozart: serious performances, emphasising the power of the music - some will think, at the cost of other virtues. Yet they are not lacking in grace and even in humour when that is called for (note the second clarinet's playing in the Trio of No. 39). But it is mostly true that the grace is a grave grace rather than light elegance.

Personally I find these performances most satisfying, ones that I want to hear again and again, but if you want your Mozart handled more lightly, then you will prefer Solti's Prague (or possibly Gui's, if you do not mind one or two rather affected touches which hardly spoil the whole): and as to No. 39, either Beecham or Karajan. My own reaction was to find Klemperer's performances both of tremendous insight and completely compelling. At the same time I should not always want to hear Mozart played in this way.

Those who enjoy making interpretative comparisons will be interested in the introduction to the Prague, played by Klemperer in dramatic style and almost twice as fast as Gui. Klemperer takes the direction adagio to refer to the crotchet, Gui to the quaver. I need hardly say that the results are so different that they can hardly, in fact, be compared. But who is to say which Mozart intended?

Klemperer has the advantage of recent recording in the forward clarity and fullness of sound, superior to the other recommended versions, good as they may be. Woodwind balance is excellent, timpani are dynamic not only from the recording but also from the way Klemperer handles them.”

T.H., The Gramophone, November 1957
Review of Mozart Symphonies 38 and 39*
(*Symphony No. 39 appears in Volume 2 of this series)

Otto Klemperer's stereo Mozart recordings with the Philiharmonia Orchestra, as represented in this series of three volumes, dates from between 1954 and 1962. During these years there were multiple advances in sound recording technology, leaving us with a collection of recordings which suffer quite a diversity in sound quality.

My principle aims in the remastering of these recordings are not only to raise the quality of all of them, but to achieve a better balance of sound between them, such that the listener no longer experiences a great lurch in audio quality when moving from one of the earliest to one of the latest of the set. While the improvements may be more marginal towards the end of the series, the earlier recordings have been greatly enhanced by these new XR remasters.

Andrew Rose

“This is a magnificent record, if only because it carries what is for me easily the most satisfying recorded performance of the big G minor, K.550. Klemperer takes the first movement at a fairly leisurely molto allegro, but how beautiful and moving the opening is—as with his Eroica, you know from the first bars that this is going to be a performance that won’t ever disappoint, and so it turns out to be. He does the first movement repeat (which I regard as essential) and continues to a slow movement which is full of grave tenderness and of a sympathy with sadness. Then comes a wonderfully exhilarating Minuet, just what is wanted after the slow movement’s mood, and a fine finale. I wouldn’t want a bar altered anywhere. The Philharmonia give Klemperer the most lovely playing, especially in the quiet string tone, and the recording is admirable.

The same quality is also to be found in the “little” G minor, though here I have to make one big reservation. I simply cannot believe that the slow movement should go as fast as this. It seems to me a complete misjudgment. And if you think that impertinent of me, then I produce the witnesses for the prosecution, who are, in greater or less degree, all the other conductors listed above, Walter, indeed, turns the movement into an adagio, and surely goes too far: Solti hits it off exactly (and I prefer his version to all others, for the whole thing is well-judged and the L.S.O. is in excellent form).

But there is historical reason for my view as well as support from other conductors. The movement is marked andante, 2/4. Now in later times than Mozart’s that would mean that the crotchet beat is to go along at an andante. But in Mozart’s day, when there weren’t conductors to beat time, composers referred to the pulse of the music, not to the unit of the time-signature, and the pulse of this movement is the quaver, not the crotchet. And you can convince yourself of this by your own ears if you listen to Klemperer and ask yourself whether it doesn’t sound like an allegretto as he does it, not an andante.

No: I can’t accept this speed. But I accept everything else on this disc with such delight that the record goes into my library and certainly won’t get dusty on the shelves. And what a wonderfully satisfying K.550!”

T.H., The Gramophone, September 1957
Review of Mozart Symphonies 25 and 40

The three recordings which make up this second volume of Klemperer's Mozart were all recorded together between 21 and 25 July 1956, allowed for a particularly well-balanced sound across the entire album, and one which has been greately enhanced by this stereo XR remastering.

Andrew Rose

“As I put this on the turntable I thought to myself that a string orchestra would probably gain very little from stereophonic treatment. Before I had been listening for a few moments, however, I was amused to be reminded that Klemperer is one of the few conductors left who still deploy the second violins on their right. (The only others, as far as I know, are Bruno Walter and Sir Adrian Boult).

It might have been a good idea to have mentioned this on the sleeve, for the practice of lumping all the violins together on the conductor's left has now become so general that many listeners may easily wonder why on earth the second violin sound is coming so clearly from the right-hand speaker, and even think the balance is wrong.

The record shows clearly the great advantage of Klemperer's lay-out, for, as Sir Adrian has so often pointed out, classical music is full of passages where a phrase on the firsts is answered by one on the seconds and this antiphonal effect, intended by the composers, is lost in the lay-out prevalent nowadays. It is odd to have this proved by a gramophone record.

There is no doubt that the delight of listening to the Philharmonia strings under Klemperer (and delight is the only adequate word for it) is enormously enhanced in the Handel by the vigorous fugal entries coming from the firsts over there and then the seconds over there. Yet there is no lack of middle in the placing of this admirable sound, for the viola leads come in somewhere between the two speakers and the bass binds the whole texture together extremely well. Fugal writing would seem to be a "natural" for stereo.

The performances themselves will need no further praise from me - at least, not by those who have heard the monaural record. Anyone who still thinks that Klemperer cannot bring off light Mozart with a smile and grace should listen to this performance of the Nachtmusik. But, indeed, the whole thing is, a pleasure to own and it is a great success in its new form. ”

T.H., The Gramophone, November 1957
Review of Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - first stereo release c/w Handel

Otto Klemperer's stereo Mozart recordings with the Philiharmonia Orchestra, as represented in this series of three volumes, dates from between 1954 and 1962. During these years there were multiple advances in sound recording technology, leaving us with a collection of recordings which suffer quite a diversity in sound quality.

My principle aims in the remastering of these recordings are not only to raise the quality of all of them, but to achieve a better balance of sound between them, such that the listener no longer experiences a great lurch in audio quality when moving from one of the earliest to one of the latest of the set. While the improvements may be more marginal towards the end of the series, the earlier recordings have been greatly enhanced by these new XR remasters.

Andrew Rose