Review: The Klemperer Complete Remastered Etc Etc Etc (Part 1)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2023
- Well, it's only got 95 CDs, with the vocal works (mostly) still to come, but here at last is the new complete Klemperer, stuffed into an inexpensive box so newbies can drown in it and the rest of us can buy it all over again. Oh, what the heck--it's still fabulous.
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Dave, your energy and love of music are amazing! I can’t open TH-cam without a “Hello Friends!” popping up.I am not buying another big boxed set, I’m not, not, not!! 😊❤
I understand...it's all a bit much, isn't it?
Thank you for being you Dave. Love, love, love Klemperererer...can't get enough. Slow but not too slow. The detail and insight is incredible!
You are very welcome. I'm a specialist in being me. ;)
Speaking of Klemperer's Mahler 7th (which you describe as "a torture")..when I bought it in fall of '69, I put it on one evening and sat, and sat, and sat....as the 1st Movement droned on, seemingly forever. Time indeed seemed to stand still, and the tone arm of the stereo barely moved. The movement finally ended, and I crawled into bed for the night. The next day I found out that there had been a rash of food poisoning at the student cafeteria, where I had eaten an hour before listening to Otto's latest. So I never figured out how much of my own "torture" and semi-delusional state that night was due to my own physical condition, and how much to Otto's mind-altering slog through M7th. LR
Great story!😊
Great story! I still remember listening to his M7 for the first time, transfixed as if I'd never heard the symphony before. Whatever else one might think of his interpretation, it's fascinating, and he makes it work.
I grew up listening to my father’s LP collection and to KFAC-FM in Los Angeles. Klemperer and Ormandy and Toscanini and Walter and Szell plus some Reiner and a smattering of Kubilek and Mitropolous and Dorati and of course Beecham were the heart of his relatively large collection. Those were great years. It is so enjoyable to revisit these giants today.
Sure, there have been superb conductors and the “period” folks have added a lot. But I think it is more than mere nostalgia to appreciate and frequently prefer the performances of that era.
Enjoyed your reminice about KFAC Los Angeles. The station was part of my musical education especially the pithy comments of Jim Sveda.
I just bought the live Beethoven 9th on vinyl this morning, it's probably my favorite 9th.
Some of the greatest classical recordings are inside that box. One that pops in my mind most is Bruckner Symphony No.06.
Excellent survey. Many thanks
I first discovered the power of music through Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique," in Klemperer's recording. Hard to believe that it's been over 50 years since then. With regard to the Hindemith Horn Concerto, a horn player that I used to know told me that Brain and Klemperer weren't getting along, and that Brain walked out, and later recorded the concerto with the composer conducting.
Walter Legge recalled that during the sessions for the Hindemith Horn Concerto, with Klemperer conducting, Dennis Brain complained to him about Klemps : "Guv-nor, I can't risk it withy that old man; he's got no rhythm and he can't or won't accompany me." Brain refused to go on further with it, and Legge concurred: "He was not going to blow his lips to shreds for something that could never be published." The next scheduled session under Klemps, that evening, was given over to Hindemith's NOBILISSIMA VISIONE. Then Hindemith himself was engaged to conduct the Horn Concerto with Brain, and everyone's face was saved. (ON AND OFF THE RECORD, p. 180)
In the mid 60s, when I was about 10, and my brother was about 15, we pooled our resources together to buy a set of Beethoven symphonies on LPs. We took the subway to Manhattan to the big Sam Goody's in midtown. I remember big piles of Beethoven box sets stacked here and there. As we looked at each pile we realized we couldn't afford the set we wanted (Szell) or any of the alternates we had though of. So we asked the clerk for a suggestion of a set that might fit our budget and he suggested Klemperer, on Angel records, in Mono. Neither of us knew who Klemperer was. We bought it and listened to all of it. We liked it enough, but it seemed a bit ponderous and sometimes VERY slow. Klemperer is not a conductor for the young. However, I do remember falling in love with the 7th from that box -- slow and ponderous sometimes is called for. Then again, the 3rd movement of the 9th was so slow and boring that I used to listen to it with my turntable set to the 45 speed. Aside from the pitch being about half an octave too high, everything sounded just great with a great lively tempo. For many years I avoided Klemperer recordings because of my reaction to that movement. But eventually I heard some of his Brahms and his Das Lied and decided he's worth another try. I just bought this remastered box, and it arrived today. I'm wondering how the Beethoven will sound to me now that I am 67.
Good (fun) story! How's the Beethoven sounding?
@@mancal5829 Much, much better and faster than I remember. As I've slowed down, so has my taste for tempos in Beethoven. He still has a serious intensity which is sometimes exactly right for the music, but he treats almost everything that way, and sometimes it is too much for Beethoven, and often too much for Mozart, Bach, Haydn and Handel. He does have an uncanny ability to find and bring out buried parts of the score.
@@jegog. I just bought the box (it's at a very reasonable $157 on Amazon), and very much appreciate your take. I love his Mozart symphonies and his Wagner, but haven't heard, as far as I remember, his Beethoven.
Perhaps it is best no to listen to his records consecutively, so as to not be fatigued by the approach. It can be, as you say, too much (even if it is too much of a good thing!).
Thanks for the review of this terrific box set.
Thank YOU!
Hi Dave thanks as always for your quick rundown on this huge box set. I do hope they split it. My first Klemperer was the Mozart 38&39 in mono. I think that was on testament. Great music!! The cd is lost. Also on Stravinsky I recall seeing a telefunken cd with Klemperer conducting Stravinsky in the pre war period. I hope it gets released to prove you right.
Nice color coordination between shirt and box.
Glad you noticed.
@DavesClassicalGuide these things aren't just thrown together, you know!😊
Graniticalisciousness…definitely Klemperer and Brahms. Your videos are always entertaining and informative. In England, our reviewers are a far more staid lot. As for these mega collections, I just don’t have the space anymore.
Here in the USA our reviewers are… well,staid would be flattering…agree ( mostly) or disagree ( seldom but vehemently at times) Dave is informative, interesting and entertaining.
I usually like Klemperer's approach, though I agree that some works just can't take the sluggish tempos and general sloppiness of his final few years. Since I already have 11 of the 12 small Klemperer boxes (missing only the Mozart opera box) and some of the Testament CDs, this new box contains very little that would be new to my collection. For this reason it goes near the bottom of my wish list (next to the recent Ansermet Stereo Years box for the same reason). That means it will probably be out of print by the time it bubbles up to the top of the list. The opera/voice box, on the other hand, may have some items I don't have, we'll see.
Also, I'm glad to hear the news about the Ormandy stereo box(es).
Thanks for that, Dave. Klemperer was a formative influence in my appreciation of the core German classics and Romantics. I have at least two-thirds of this stuff on LPs and first generation digital remasterings from the 80s but might be tempted to take the plunge with this box if the latest remastering were reliably reported to bring a significant sonic plus. So I am glad to have your view that it does not. One example of a classic set where I am not satisfied with the sound of an 80s remastering (tiring digital glare) is Solti's Ring but the sound on Klemperer's 80s remasterings does not suffer from that and is better than adequate. I recall that the 50s reviewers in Gramophone and the like commented unfavourably on the recording quality of the early Klemperer/Philharmonia releases. I think that was not due the inferior recording technique for the period but rather to the more austere but more limpid orchestral texture which Klemperer drew from the Philharmonia compared with the glamorous timbres produced by the likes of Karajan, Giulini and Cantelli.
On a different register, are you planning to review the new release on Bru Zane of César Franck's never staged opera Hulda? From what I read in Diapason, the plot sounds pretty silly but does the quality of late Franck music override that?
I've already covered the Naxos release, so you can check out that video. I do plan to do the new one. It's an opera. The plots are always silly. Who cares?
Love your presentations. I have old LPs of the Haydn 101 and the Mahler 4th that I always enjoyed. It's nice to see they did original jackets (except for that stupid "W") as a design aesthetic instead of those "Angel" covers which would do nothing except remind us of those horrible sounding LP pressings from the 70s. Back then, the Brits got much better editions of the same performances.....Thanks for the heads up on the Ormandy Dave!
I’m one of the young-uns trying to get Klemperer’s Beethoven, just through Apple Music instead of CDs. Every symphony is there-except the 5th. Gaaaa!!! My own loss sadly. By the way, I do hope there will be a Karajan EMI video ;)
Since the release of this megabox, the old ones, smaller but more manageable (since i'm more repertoire-driven, i'm not such fan of megabox) have been at a discount. It is possible to cherry pick these boxes based on the informed comments in this video. And since the new remastering, according to mr Hurwitz, doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, it's definitely a good way to fill some holes in your collection.
Hi Dave, do you have a rough idea when the stereo recordings of Eugene Ormandy will be released in a big box set?
No clue.
As I wend my way through this box, I am finding the new remasterings to be consistently superior to the ones in the little black boxes from a decade ago. The new masters are brighter and more detailed with a lot more air around the music. The brass voicings are particularly stunning. Take a listen to the opening fanfare of the Tchaik 4 or to the Bruckner 6. The brass really blows my hair back now, what little of it that's left. The strings have some real bite in places, too, and in many of the Mozart recordings in particular, you can really hear that famous contrapuntal thing going on between the first and second violins. Listening to this new box is like getting a new stereo system without getting a new stereo system. Just listen to the sound of the orchestra on Das Lied Von Der Erde. In short, this new set is well worth the money for those of us who had only bought a few of the black boxes and still had a lot of the Mahler on those hoary old EMI CDs from the 1980s. This is monumental music that deserves the sonic polishing it has received here. I only wish the booklet were more than a single essay and an index. (Interesting photos though.)
Glad you found the remastering more significant than I did.
What does the Brahms sound like in this remastering? It was somewhat boxy in the small black box edition.
So grateful for your observations... I too am a fellow Klemperer fan... I will venture forth and obtain this mammoth box. Thank you again.
@@nicholasjagger6557 Alas, the Brahms little black box was one of the ones in which I had never invested. My points of comparison for the Brahms are the "Klemperer Legacy" CD issues of the 1990s, plus a Japanese disc coupling Symphonies 3 and 4. Those have never bothered me sound-wise, but the Brahms I have sampled so far in tne new box displays many of the virtues I mentioned generally above, e.g., airiness, detail, and great brass voicings. While, as Dave mentioned, the improvement may not be hugely dramatic, there is no question that, to my ears, these new remasterings are the best versions of the Klemperer Brahms available. As for the boxiness, I found the 1955 Klemperer recording of the Beethoven 7 to be rather thin in the old EMI disc and still quite constricted and distant (i.e., boxy) in the little black Beethoven box. The new remaster still sounds that way. So there may be some recordings where the original source is so poor that no amount of sonic polishing is going to make it sound great. But I don't believe the original engineering of the Brahms recordings was that defective. They've always sounded excellent, and they sound even better now in the new box.
@@GastonBulbous I think that ‘55 Beethoven 7th sounds better in the mono version, which has been supplanted by this stereo mix, which was only unearthed much later, and perhaps was not optimally preserved? It sounded similar to the 3rd & 5th done at that time, which obviously only exist in mono now. the FIRST cd issue of the 7th, from 1991 on a single disc, WAS in mono. Only prob with that is the digital transfers weren’t the best. Ironically, the HMV LP set from the 70’s (SLS 873) with 3, 5, & 7 was in fake stereo, so I wouldn’t recommend tracking that one down. I guess when I get this set (which I will get, hell yes!) I’ll have 3 different cd versions of many of these! Dave, thanks for the heads up on the Sony Ormandy stereo set(s)!! Just take my money already!
Funny comment about the Franck coupling. In the previous set, they divided it to two disc. Argh!
Interesting, as always. Having bought most of the "little boxes", I'll probably give this behemoth a miss. Always fascinating to see the original cover art, but just wondering why classical covers have to be so drab. Funky covers, even with Klemperer's music, would have been nice. Kolonel Klink (Werner Klemperer, Otto's son) would have approved!
Regarding Bruckner 8, an earlier recording (c.1957) with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra might be a more satisfactory alternative to the EMI/Warner performance.
It's not.
I find the live recording of Beethoven's 9th almost the same as his studio recording, except for the balances. Right at the start of the live recording, you notice the more forward balance of percussion and woodwinds, which makes all the difference. This is why I find the live performance infinitely preferable.
Infinitely?
@@DavesClassicalGuide Well, almost infinitely.
@@bendingcaesar65 That's better!
@@DavesClassicalGuide 😆
Any opinion on the remastered sound? Is it much of an improvement on the previous sets? Thanks
Watch the video and read the comments. This is discussed.
I was going to pass on this: too much Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and other German literature. But now I'm considering it just to hear that Petrushka and Klemp's own 2nd.
Yes, Dave! Yes on all accounts! With OK it was the great and the bad but so very much was really great and you say "no one like him today"? I would say there was no one like him then.
He was an original. And at his greatest fascinatingly musical.
A warning about this box. The tiny book has an Alpha Composer index but the listing of the of the CDs in numeric order that should be in the book is the outside wrapping of the box! Buyers Beware: Don't ripe the wrapping off. You may want to keep it. It's the only index you'll have. I managed to carefully cut it down to size so it fits inside the box.
A not very thoughtful box of great music.
I hope RCA/Sony never follow EMI/Warner's example. Shameful!
That is true, but at least the individual discs do give complete track listings on the back of the slip-case. As I said, these releases are getting cheaper looking by the minute.