Forthcoming Klemperer Boxes

[Mandryka]

Can't find anything on EMI's site, but the booklet for the Bruckner box features a trailer for eight further Klemperer boxes to be released next year.

They will be:

Januay 2013

Brahms (Symphonies, etc, Requiem)

Concertos (Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms)

Mozart (Symphonies/Overtures/Serenades)


March 2013

Mozart (Operas)

20th Century Music (Hindemith, Klemperer, Stravinsky, Weill)


May 2013

Mahler (2,4, 7, 9 + Das Lied)

Wagner/Strauss

Bach/Rameau/Handel/Gluck/Haydn


All these works feature the PO/NPO. Wasn't there a GROTC release of Klemperer performing the Resurrection Symphony with the BRSO? A shame it hasn't been included here: I expect rights issues account for its absence.


The Wagner/Strauss box looks interesting: it's 5 CDs, so presumably will include his last ever studio recording (Walkure, Act 1) as well as the Wotan's Abschied with Bailey, which was - apparently - actually conducted by Goodall. These latter two items have appeared most recently on Testament - I have them on 2nd hand vinyl. They were, oddly enough, the first Klemperer recordings I ever heard and put me off OK for many years!

Am I the only person who is puzzled that Klemperer was so keen to record Mozart's operas in his final years? He wasn't most people's idea of a natural fit for this repertoire, though I enjoy his recordings of Zauberflote adn (especially) DG.

[richardfinegold]

Can't find anything on EMI's site, but the booklet for the Bruckner box features a trailer for eight further Klemperer boxes to be released next year.

They will be:

Januay 2013

Brahms (Symphonies, etc, Requiem)

Concertos (Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms)

Mozart (Symphonies/Overtures/Serenades)


March 2013

Mozart (Operas)

20th Century Music (Hindemith, Klemperer, Stravinsky, Weill)


May 2013

Mahler (2,4, 7, 9 + Das Lied)

Wagner/Strauss

Bach/Rameau/Handel/Gluck/Haydn


All these works feature the PO/NPO. Wasn't there a GROTC release of Klemperer performing the Resurrection Symphony with the BRSO? A shame it hasn't been included here: I expect rights issues account for its absence.


The Wagner/Strauss box looks interesting: it's 5 CDs, so presumably will include his last ever studio recording (Walkure, Act 1) as well as the Wotan's Abschied with Bailey, which was - apparently - actually conducted by Goodall. These latter two items have appeared most recently on Testament - I have them on 2nd hand vinyl. They were, oddly enough, the first Klemperer recordings I ever heard and put me off OK for many years!

Am I the only person who is puzzled that Klemperer was so keen to record Mozart's operas in his final years? He wasn't most people's idea of a natural fit for this repertoire, though I enjoy his recordings of Zauberflote adn (especially) DG.

OK was a very intellectual musician. He was associated with the twentieth century avant garde while he led the Kroll Opera in Berlin. He did seem to record a lot more music of the Classical Period late in his life. Perhaps he really starting to appreciate the Mozart operas anew towards the end of his life.

[Mandryka]

OK was a very intellectual musician. He was associated with the twentieth century avant garde while he led the Kroll Opera in Berlin. He did seem to record a lot more music of the Classical Period late in his life. Perhaps we really starting to appreciate the Mozart operas anew towards the end of his life.

Towards the end of his life, Bohm claimed that he 'still felt like a young man' when he was conducting Mozart - maybe the same was true of Klemperer.

Hst, OK's approach does make some works that I don't much care for more accessible to me: his Messiah is the only one I ever listen to. I might even give his Haydn a try.

[Petrushka]

Wasn't there a GROTC release of Klemperer performing the Resurrection Symphony with the BRSO? A shame it hasn't been included here: I expect rights issues account for its absence.

The live 1965 BRSO Mahler 2 appeared in 1998 in a short series entitled The Klemperer Legacy and as far as I know has never been reissued. I consider it superior to the studio recording.

The GROC issue was the 1963 Philharmonia studio recording.

As an aside, is anyone else dismayed at the constant rehash of material already issued and reissued half to death? EMI are more guilty of this than most. There might be the odd nugget in there to tempt but I can't see my cash being separated from my wallet on this occasion.

[Barbirollians]

I tend to agree certainly re the concertos box - the Barenboim/Klemperer Beethoven Piano Concertos are wonderful but have been reissued over and over again . Much of Klemperer's recorded legacy has however been deleted for some while on EMI and I am glad to see it back . The Romantic symphonies box in particular .

[richardfinegold]

The live 1965 BRSO Mahler 2 appeared in 1998 in a short series entitled The Klemperer Legacy and as far as I know has never been reissued. I consider it superior to the studio recording.

The GROC issue was the 1963 Philharmonia studio recording.

As an aside, is anyone else dismayed at the constant rehash of material already issued and reissued half to death? EMI are more guilty of this than most. There might be the odd nugget in there to tempt but I can't see my cash being separated from my wallet on this occasion.

Absolutely. The record companies have recycled these recordings endlessly and get us to repurchase our collections. The next iteration will be downloads only.

[akiralx]

Absolutely. The record companies have recycled these recordings endlessly and get us to repurchase our collections. The next iteration will be downloads only.

You may have missed a step out.... http://www.sa-cd.net/showthread/95733//y?page=first

[mathias broucek]

The live 1965 BRSO Mahler 2 appeared in 1998 in a short series entitled The Klemperer Legacy and as far as I know has never been reissued. I consider it superior to the studio recording.

Agreed. An outstanding recording!

There was also a BRSO Bruckner 4, Beethoven 4/5 and Mendelssohn 3/Schubert 8.

They are available as MP3s for around £7.50 (which is how I got the Mahler) but the CDs are c. £20 per disc for new.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Am I the only person who is puzzled that Klemperer was so keen to record Mozart's operas in his final years? He wasn't most people's idea of a natural fit for this repertoire, though I enjoy his recordings of Zauberflote adn (especially) DG.

Klemperer frequently conducted Mozart's operas whilst Music Director of the Kroll Opera - and, in his "memoirs" he speaks enthusiastically of the Mozart conducting of Strauss and Mahler. After he was forced into exile, he was mainly employed as a conductor of concerts, not in the opera house, and it was in this capacity that he was hired by Legge to conduct the Philharmonia at the Festival of Britain in 1951. He was asked to conduct Elgar's Enigma Variations, but said that he'd prefer to do the Jupiter (there was enough English Music on the programme with the Scapino Overture!) and threatened to withdraw from the concert if he couldn't. Legge reluctantly gave way, determining to himself that he'd never ask this chap back - and then he heard the concert and was so impressed by it that he spent several hours talking to Klemperer about Mozart after the concert.

At the end of his life, when he was recording operas again, it's little wonder that his favourite composer would feature strongly on his wish list. It's intriguing, too, that there may be a distant echo of how Mahler conducted Don Giovanni (the performances that so impressed Brahms) in that recording.

There is an apocryphal story, too, that young female singers told themselves that, to ward off Dr Klemp's unwanted advances, they just had to start talking about K550 and he'd be lost at the piano instantly so they could make their escape!

[cloughie]

Absolutely. The record companies have recycled these recordings endlessly and get us to repurchase our collections. The next iteration will be downloads only.

Did you say irritation! The problem with downloads of classical music is the way they sell them and often not able to pick and mix at a reasonable price.

[Barbirollians]

Klemperer's magic Flute is in a class of its own in my view - Lucia Popp in particular is fabulous .

[Mandryka]

Klemperer's magic Flute is in a class of its own in my view - Lucia Popp in particular is fabulous .

I'd agree. The fact that he omits ALL of the dialogue is a major plus for me.

[Mandryka]

Klemperer frequently conducted Mozart's operas whilst Music Director of the Kroll Opera - and, in his "memoirs" he speaks enthusiastically of the Mozart conducting of Strauss and Mahler. After he was forced into exile, he was mainly employed as a conductor of concerts, not in the opera house, and it was in this capacity that he was hired by Legge to conduct the Philharmonia at the Festival of Britain in 1951. He was asked to conduct Elgar's Enigma Variations, but said that he'd prefer to do the Jupiter (there was enough English Music on the programme with the Scapino Overture!) and threatened to withdraw from the concert if he couldn't. Legge reluctantly gave way, determining to himself that he'd never ask this chap back - and then he heard the concert and was so impressed by it that he spent several hours talking to Klemperer about Mozart after the concert.

At the end of his life, when he was recording operas again, it's little wonder that his favourite composer would feature strongly on his wish list. It's intriguing, too, that there may be a distant echo of how Mahler conducted Don Giovanni (the performances that so impressed Brahms) in that recording.

There is an apocryphal story, too, that young female singers told themselves that, to ward off Dr Klemp's unwanted advances, they just had to start talking about K550 and he'd be lost at the piano instantly so they could make their escape!

Nice anecdote. :) I still find it hard to picture Klemp as a lecher,: difficult to reconcile with all of those stern pictures of him (can't recall I've ever seen a pic of him smiling, though they must exist).

[Thropplenoggin]

I just ordered the new Klemperer Brahms box set (symphonies, overtures, requiem) only to discover - - it DOESN'T contain the words to the Alto Rhapsody.

Since the remasterings are the same as the GRoC set of symphonies and overtures, the price roughly equivalent, and I already have the Requiem (Herreweghe, HM), I'm wondering whether I should send it back unopened for the GRoC set complete with words, mini-essay, etc.

Are these EMI box sets all bereft of liner notes like the new cheap-as-chips but note-barren Sony Classics sets?

[Barbirollians]

I just ordered the new Klemperer Brahms box set (symphonies, overtures, requiem) only to discover - - it DOESN'T contain the words to the Alto Rhapsody.

Since the remasterings are the same as the GRoC set of symphonies and overtures, the price roughly equivalent, and I already have the Requiem (Herreweghe, HM), I'm wondering whether I should send it back unopened for the GRoC set complete with words, mini-essay, etc.



Are these EMI box sets all bereft of liner notes like the new cheap-as-chips but note-barren Sony Classics sets?

The sets I have bought all have scholarly notes by Richard Osborne - the Bruckner, Beethoven and Romantic symphonies sets .
I wouldn't cut my nose offf to spite my face and miss out on that wonderful recording of the Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem .