8.111303 bk Klemperer02_EU 8/10/08 15:19 Page 4 Great Conductors: Otto Klemperer Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55, ‘Eroica’ 49:18 BEETHOVEN 1 I Allegro con brio 15:48 2 II Marcia funèbre: Adagio assai 14:40 3 III Scherzo: Allegro vivace - Trio 6:26 Symphony No. 3 • Overtures 4 IV Finale: Allegro molto - Poco andante - Presto 12:24 Recorded on 5th - 6th October and 17th December, 1955 in Kingsway Hall, London First issued on Columbia 33CX 1346 LEM O K PER 5 Leonore Overture No. 1 in C major, Op. 138 8:34 TT ER Recorded on 17th November 1954 in Kingsway Hall, London O First issued on Columbia 33CX 1270 6 Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72a 13:40 Recorded on 18th November 1954 in Kingsway Hall, London First issued on Columbia 33CX 1270 Philharmonia Orchestra • Otto Klemperer Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn 1 s 954 ing -1955 Record Philharmonia Orchestra Otto Klemperer 8.111303 4 8.111303 bk Klemperer02_EU 8/10/08 15:19 Page 2 is a notable example of Klemperer conducting Of course, on this particular aspect, Beethoven, Great Conductors: Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) Beethoven, the then-juvenile but fully seasoned formally speaking anyway, did seek repetition at this BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3 • Leonore Overtures Nos. 1 and 3 Philharmonia Orchestra responding with a European point, and although an historically informed conductor sensibility to the gravitas of Beethoven’s music in what would presumably have no option but to acknowledge The German conductor and composer Otto Klemperer, lasts all of a hundred minutes, compared with a usual might now be considered a pre-authentic style, but then this request, Klemperer, like so many conductors of his whose wish was to be remembered more for the latter of average duration of about 75, the word ‘stoical’ perhaps Klemperer’s weighty and deliberate conception is now era, insists on going forward rather than going back – to those musical activities, was born in Breslau on 14th best sums up Klemperer’s attitude to life – both as a light-years away from those conductors who regularly advantage (it should be noted that Klemperer could May 1885. He studied in Frankfurt and Berlin. Amongst man and as a musician – and there are few works more conduct Beethoven’s music as fast as possible and otherwise be very generous with repeats in other those who encouraged him was Gustav Mahler, whom indomitable in spirit than Beethoven’s Eroica throw many possibilities away in the back-to-basics Beethoven symphonies). Not that this was quite the Klemperer had met in 1905 when conducting the off- Symphony. Further evidence of Klemperer’s process. norm for the Eroica’s first movement, for, as recorded, stage band in the former’s Resurrection Symphony. In steadfastness was that he seemed ‘charmed’ against his Klemperer has his own way, a rhythmically buoyant Erich Kleiber (in Vienna) and Willem Mengelberg 1907 Klemperer became conductor of the German penchant for being accident-prone (on one occasion he approach that is not without its human and tender side, (New York) both observed the repeat (but not in their Opera in Prague, thanks to Mahler’s recommendation. set fire to the bed that he was smoking in) and endured nor is there a lack of dynamic contrast, in a reading that alternative recordings of this work); reminders of the During his early career he undertook numerous numerous illnesses (not least part-paralysis) until he gets inside the music without dogma: the score is the importance of independence in the interpretation of appointments and it was in 1927 (some recordings from reached a ripe old age and remained conducting until stronger for it, not rushed off its feet or approximating to great musical literature. this period are available on 8.111274) that his activities more or less the end of his life. the sort of performance prevalent in Beethoven’s own The two (of three) Leonore Overtures are both peaked when he became conductor of the Kroll Opera in Such an unflinching attitude also informs day. In this particular recording, the Scherzo’s rhythmic associated with the opera of that name that was revised Berlin. There he performed then-new pieces by Klemperer’s ‘style’ as a conductor. He was a master pin-pointing is a delight and the finale is no throw-away into Fidelio. Klemperer keeps the opening of the Hindemith, Janáček, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. In structuralist, seeing a work’s end in its beginning, and ending; it is the gathering of a resolution rather than the (underrated) Overture No. 1 on the move, with real 1933, when the Nazi Party was gathering pace, while it is reported that the younger Klemperer could be stampeding of one, and whether in the country-dance theatrical impetus, and drives further when the main Klemperer, a Jew who converted to Catholicism and a firebrand and a towering figure on the podium (as well episodes or the grand apotheosis, Beethoven’s Allegro arrives, to leave surely no doubt that this is then returned to Judaism, went to the United States: in as being erratic off it), galvanising his performers with boundary-breaking music here unfolds as integrated and theatrical music. With Leonore No. 3 the approach is that year he became conductor of the Los Angeles electric gestures, he was always focussed on the music, arrives with a real sense of homecoming. In many ways different; more a symphonic poem (before Liszt had Philharmonic, an appointment he held until 1939. its construction and direction, and not interested, indeed the highlight of this recording is the second movement coined the term) than an overture, Klemperer’s taut yet Klemperer died on 6th July 1973 at the age of 88 antipathetic to, creating a particular sound; with Funeral March, of solemn tread and noble expression; vividly narrated account testifies to the music’s and perhaps the picture of him that most easily comes to Klemperer what you hear is what is written on the page, one is aware of the marching strides and also universal capability to be, thrice, a concert overture, a dramatic mind is of an old man sitting to conduct and appearing an unvarnished recreation of a composer’s notation. In pathos that never falls into sentimentality. Preceding musical statement and an encapsulation of one of uncertain of gesture and even of the occasion – such his earlier days Klemperer could set fizzing tempos, but this, the first movement convinces in its leaning to Klemperer’s operatic specialities. images being captured on film towards the end of his the logic of his music-making was always a given, a expression rather than velocity and with an overall shape life when he was conducting Beethoven symphonies sense of proportion and consistency being omnipresent and growth enhanced by Klemperer not observing the Colin Anderson with the New Philharmonia Orchestra in London and in his conducting, whether in Brahms’s First Symphony, exposition repeat. adopting tempos that were slower than usual. Recorded recorded in 1927 and 1928, yet appearing made as a fifteen or so years earlier, the Beethoven performances one-off performance rather than recorded on five on this release find Klemperer at his powerful best; different days over a period of six months, or in the spacious, yes, but with a purpose and thrust that not unswerving logic of his conducting of this Eroica. only give the music its own space but also propose a Klemperer was closely associated with the London- clear sense of objective and absolute architectural based Philharmonia Orchestra, first conducting it in surety. 1951, becoming Principal Conductor in 1959 and Although ‘slow tempos’ were a significant retaining ties until shortly before his death. A large characteristic of Klemperer’s final years, as heard in catalogue of recordings ensued for EMI, mostly some recordings, for example in his final recording of produced by Walter Legge, the impresario who had Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Bruckner’s Symphony formed the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1945, and No. 8, and, perhaps most notoriously, in his slow- inevitably of the Austro-German classics that motion version of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7, which Klemperer was particularly associated with. The Eroica 8.111303 2 3 8.111303 8.111303 bk Klemperer02_EU 8/10/08 15:19 Page 2 is a notable example of Klemperer conducting Of course, on this particular aspect, Beethoven, Great Conductors: Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) Beethoven, the then-juvenile but fully seasoned formally speaking anyway, did seek repetition at this BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3 • Leonore Overtures Nos. 1 and 3 Philharmonia Orchestra responding with a European point, and although an historically informed conductor sensibility to the gravitas of Beethoven’s music in what would presumably have no option but to acknowledge The German conductor and composer Otto Klemperer, lasts all of a hundred minutes, compared with a usual might now be considered a pre-authentic style, but then this request, Klemperer, like so many conductors of his whose wish was to be remembered more for the latter of average duration of about 75, the word ‘stoical’ perhaps Klemperer’s weighty and deliberate conception is now era, insists on going forward rather than going back – to those musical activities, was born in Breslau on 14th best sums up Klemperer’s attitude to life – both as a light-years away from those conductors who regularly advantage (it should be noted that Klemperer could May 1885. He studied in Frankfurt and Berlin. Amongst man and as a musician – and there are few works more conduct Beethoven’s music as fast as possible and otherwise be very generous with repeats in other those who encouraged him was Gustav Mahler, whom indomitable in spirit than Beethoven’s Eroica throw many possibilities away in the back-to-basics Beethoven symphonies).