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finished listening to Klemperer's Beethoven set

Posted by TGR (A) on January 29, 2017 at 15:14:10

I have long felt that Klemperer's recordings of Fidelio and the Missa Solemnis are standards for those works, but I had heard few of Klemperer's recordings of Beethoven symphonies, having felt warned off by his reputation for slow tempos, and the poor overall evaluation given by Paul Henry Lang in the circa 1970 review in High Fidelity of the then existing recordings of Beethoven symphonies available on the US market. Lang could often be very right in his evaluations - for example, his review of the Toscanini set is just about dead on to my ears.

Well, listening and forming your own judgements is really the best way forward, although I think these days it would be next to impossible for a single reviewer to survey all of the available sets and make recommendations...just too many recordings - we have had a flood of complete Beethoven sets since the early 70s, and a lot of others have been resurrected.

Anyway, I found an unplayed set of the early 70s reissue of these symphonies, on 9 LPs and on EMI, on eBay for a somewhat reasonable price (shipping was a little pricey), but this set is gorgeous.

Overall impressions: first, Klemperer is not ALWAYS slow - there are a number of lively tempos, and by the way he maintains good rhythm throughout, so even some of the slower tempos are well-sprung. There is the famous Klemperer quote, when asked if a certain tempo was very slow "you will get used to it". Clearly he believed in his tempos, and they were an interpretive choice, not something due to age . One of the more interesting passages in Heyworth's Conversations with Klemperer" is Klemperer's remarks about Mahler and his ability to make you believe in his tempo, that it was the right one. In general most of his tempo didn't concern me too much, and the offset is the wealth of detail Klemperer finds - details you have never heard before - the overall line, and the beautiful playing of the Philharmonia.

The next thing is how forward he puts the winds, and also the benefits in clarity through the use of divided strings.

In general, the set works very well, and the major disappointment is the performance of the 5th, which seems incredibly static as a performance, and features very odd tempo fluctuations in the first movement. There are loads better 5ths - Szell, Karajan, and Vanska would be 3 that I recommend (I am not a big fan of the famous C. Kleiber 5th - I find it externalized and over-muscular, which I recognize is a minority opinion).

The 7th is just so-so but I find the Eroica and Pastorale to be marvelous performances, and the 9th to be one of the all-time great performances. I also enjoyed the "lesser symphonies" - 1, 2, 4 and 8. And my set features all of the ancillary works also recorded by Klemperer.

Anyway, I am about 50 years late to this party.....but better late than never. This set is a keeper. Wouldn't be my first choice (I would recommend Szell for that), but Klemperer had a lot of interesting things to say.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

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