111248 bk Klemperer EU 1/15/07 11:55 AM Page 4 Great Conductors: Otto Klemperer Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 35:00 BEETHOVEN 1 I Allegro con brio 8:04 2 II Andante con moto 10:06 3 III Allegro 5:43 Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 4 IV Allegro – Presto 11:07 Recorded 6th and 7th October and 17th December, 1955 in Kingsway Hall, London First issued on Columbia 33C 1051 LEM O K PER Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 38:44 TT ER 5 I Poco sostenuto – Vivace 12:53 O 6 II Allegretto 9:27 7 III Presto – Assai meno presto 8:24 8 IV Allegro con brio 7:58 Recorded 5th and 6th October and 17th December, 1955 in Kingsway Hall, London First issued on Columbia 33CX 1379 Philharmonia Orchestra Otto Klemperer Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Producer’s Note When stereo tape recording was first adopted by the major labels in the mid-1950s, it was looked upon as an experimental adjunct to the main monaural recording sessions. The stereo engineer would work from a different 1 s studio than the mono producer and engineer. With EMI and Decca at least, this control room was kept secret 955 Recording from the “artistes” out of fear they might demand to be paid twice for the sessions (once for the mono and again for the stereo taping). The new equipment often malfunctioned, and sometimes not enough was recorded of takes that went well to release. When success was achieved, the results could only be issued on open-reel tape, as the technology for cutting stereo LPs had not yet been developed. Such was the case with Klemperer’s first Philharmonia recordings of three Beethoven symphonies. While the Eroica (made around the same time as the two symphonies reissued here) and the Fifth were only ever Philharmonia Orchestra released in mono, the Seventh came out in 1956 on an EMI “Stereosonic” tape. However, the takes used for the stereo release were not always the same as those chosen for the mono LP. In the case of the Seventh Symphony, Otto Klemperer enough critics and other listeners have preferred the mono version that EMI have reissued twice over the years, on LP and CD, at the same time they had the stereo recording in print. Currently, this coupling in EMI’s “Great Recordings of the Century” series uses the stereo taping of the Seventh. When that CD came out, some critics voiced disappointment that the mono version had not been chosen in its place. That decision is rectified with the present release. Mark Obert-Thorn 8.111248 4 111248 bk Klemperer EU 1/15/07 11:55 AM Page 2 recuperation following a fall in which he had fractured Klemperer always regarded Beethoven as special Great Conductors: Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) his neck, Klemperer finally agreed contract terms with and the conductor was already perceived as one of the Legge and EMI on 10th May 1952. Even then, further composer’s greatest interpreters. His interpretations of BEETHOVEN: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 difficulties arose owing to Klemperer’s American the symphonies and Fidelio were renowned for being These recordings of Beethoven’s Fifth and followed by unhappy émigré years in the United citizenship and his long absences from the United uncompromising, architectural and highly objective. Seventh Symphonies were set down together with a States during the Second World War as principal States. The American Federation of Musicians would In his youth he had inherited the Wagnerian tradition much-celebrated Eroica towards the start of conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, not agree to him recording abroad and the EMI of taking considerable licence with regard to tempi Klemperer’s relationship with the Philharmonia only to return to Europe in 1946 after the war to feel contract had to be cancelled in July 1953. Only when and retouching the orchestrations, something also Orchestra, which endured from his first concert compelled to leave his post at the Budapest State he gave up American citizenship could a new contract taken forward by Mahler, of whom Klemperer had engagement by the orchestra’s founder Walter Legge Opera under the increasingly authoritarian be signed in 1954. first-hand experience and almost reverential for the opening of London’s Royal Festival Hall as stranglehold of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The first recording sessions with the Philharmonia appreciation. But over the years he more frequently part of the celebrations making up the Festival of Thereafter he accepted engagements almost took place in October 1954, when Klemperer recorded made a point of saying that he wanted to return to the Britain in May 1951 until the conductor’s death in wherever he could, all the time battling against manic- Mozart’s 29th and ‘Jupiter’ Symphonies with original Beethoven scores. Never a conductor for 1973, by which time he had overseen their depression and a series of debilitating accidents. For Hindemith’s Nobilissima Visione and Brahms’s whom expression, colour and feeling were foremost, transformation away from Legge to the New Klemperer to be in London in 1951 was the most Variations on the St. Anthony Chorale. The Hindemith he concentrated on form, structure and overall Philharmonia Orchestra. fortuitous instance of being in the right place at the work was to have been the Horn Concerto with architecture within the context of tempi, dynamics and George Szell had been engaged for the right time. Although concert activity remained a key Dennis Brain, but these sessions did not go well, with harmonic development designated by the composer. Philharmonia’s two festival concerts with soloist component of Legge’s project with the Philharmonia conflict over tempi putting conductor and soloist at This still did not dissuade him from using a large body Artur Schnabel, but when the conductor was found to Orchestra, its main focus centred on recording and loggerheads. As it turned out, this was an early sign of of strings with a doubling of woodwind and be unavailable and Legge’s proposed alternative, building a catalogue of repertoire with the best things to come, but Legge neatly sidestepped the issue occasionally horns to match the texture. Ever alert to Herbert von Karajan, was not favoured by the performers and technical staff that he could muster to by suggesting the alternative Hindemith work and balance, Klemperer always split his first and second festival’s organizers, the esteemed German pianist lost exploit the new LP technology that was transforming later setting up Brain’s recording of the concerto with violins across the front of the platform and ensured no time in suggesting Klemperer, with whom he had home listening and the general accessibility of music the composer, no less, conducting. In the following that the contribution of wind and brass counterpoint previously collaborated very productively on several in the post-war world. Apart from the still month, Bach’s four Orchestral Suites were recorded and rhythmic clarity was not compromised. occasions. In the event, Schnabel also had to cancel controversial Karajan, Legge’s roster of conductors at together with the Beethoven’s three Leonora and The circumstances of Beethoven’s own parlous owing to illness, his place in the ‘Emperor’ Concerto this relatively early stage was not the most Fidelio Overtures. The restoration of Klemperer’s emotional and physical condition would certainly being taken by Myra Hess. The all-Beethoven distinguished. Klemperer could hold his head high fortunes was well under way. have had a particular and specific relevance to programme also featured the Egmont Overture and the with Furtwängler, Walter, Kleiber and Toscanini and, Given the temperaments involved, Legge’s Klemperer as his own state became increasingly Fifth Symphony. As part of the general absenteeism despite his reputation for being stubborn and difficult, agreement to record Klemperer in three Beethoven precarious. Survival through indomitable spirit that dogged the occasion, Legge was not able to attend he represented a conductor of inestimable pedigree symphonies in 1955 before the completion of his certainly provides a bedrock for these examples of either, but was left in no doubt of the runaway success and patrician authority, especially in core classical ongoing cycle with Karajan and the same orchestra Klemperer’s work in the studio with Beethoven of Klemperer with the audience, critics and more repertoire, who would potentially be a flagship brand demonstrates considerable chutzpah and typical symphonies and, in this repertoire, many would argue importantly the members of the orchestra, one of leader for a recording company poised on the brink of shrewdness. In terms of re-establishing Klemperer’s that he never recaptured this quality in the recording whom, Marie Wilson, is reported to have said to the a new era. reputation on both sides of the Atlantic, these three studio to quite the same exalted degree. impresario ‘I feel like a tart, taking money from you Always controversial and rarely endearing unless recordings were crucial and, with the dawning of the for making music with a man like that’. it suited him, Legge’s support and offer of a recording stereo age, led to a decision for him to record the rest Ian Julier Klemperer had previously endured twenty years contract opened the door to a new period of much of the cycle with stereo remakes of the Third, Fifth of the most extreme trauma in both his professional needed stability and security for Klemperer, as well as and Seventh Symphonies. career and his personal life. Ever since the politically a platform from which to reconsolidate his career on protracted and emotionally fraught closure of the an international level.