REPLAY
Rob Cowan’s monthly survey of historic reissues and archive recordings
Klemperer in Philadelphia, Mengelberg in New York Two great European conductors cross the pond to wonderful effect
F
ew great conductors of the past 70 years have enjoyed a healthier posthumous re-evaluation through first-release concert performances than Otto Klemperer. Most tapes have hailed from Europe but Pristine Audio brings us a batch of recordings (also out on Archiphon) featuring stereo recordings of concerts that Klemperer gave in the early 1960s with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pristine offering a slightly ‘aired’ alternative to the drier but admirably clear version of the tapes favoured by Archiphon. The difference between these generally well recorded offerings and their European counterparts is down to the combination of Klemperer’s gruffly marmoreal conducting style and the refined, not to mention brilliant, quality of the Philadelphians’ playing. This was Eugene Ormandy’s well-oiled machine at the very height of its powers, sonorous, soloistic in all departments, weighty through muscle rather than through flab, and responsive to Klemperer’s every gesture, always patient and, for most of the time, just plain beautiful, especially the winds and strings. All this makes Klemperer’s refusal to compromise eminently palatable, though without lessening the impact of his generally big-boned interpretations. Add a lyrical, linear quality and a propensity for sudden crescendos and you have a series of recordings that soon embosses itself on the memory. Also, still with Schumann’s Symphony No 4 (and not No 3 as it says on the cover artwork), Klemperer has his strings play so quietly (40 seconds or so later), while letting his winds sing out. It’s all so much more natural than its London counterpart, as if Klemperer were keeping control while dropping the formality. Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony provides a quite different contrast. The ‘Peasant’s 96 GRAMOPHONE AUGUST 2016
Merrymaking’ is still played slow-motion (‘You’re not sure? You’ll get used to it’ to paraphrase Klemperer himself) but compared with the stereo Philharmonia recording the very opening sports a luxuriance that is quite unlike any other Klemperer performance on disc. The proto-minimalist development chugs along contentedly, building as it goes and only the storm disappoints by dint of some rather constricted dynamics. Bach’s First Brandenburg ambles breezily with an easy gait (certainly in comparison with the urgency of current period-performance practitioners) and Brahms’s Third combines warmth with an impressive depth of tone, the opening grounded on a firm bass line, the middle movements nicely differentiated. The Eroica’s high spot is the first movement, Klemperer considerately allowing his winds to shine, the disruptive centre and the exultant coda superbly built, while the Marcia funèbre has gravitas to spare, but without sounding excessively weighted. Granted, maybe Beethoven’s Seventh hasn’t quite the wry humour that is such a key ingredient in the 1955 Philharmonia version (especially just before the first movement’s coda) but the finale builds up a fair head of steam. Mozart’s Jupiter, on the other hand, is exceptional, the first movement (with repeat) rising high on a sense of momentum, the Andante cantabile extremely expressive and the finale, both unusually swift and cumulatively exultant. All four CDs provide worthwhile additions to Klemperer’s already impressive discography. A brief check of Klemperer’s Philadelphia timing for the first movement of the Eroica against Willem Mengelberg’s 1930 New York recording for Victor (16'46" as opposed to 17'25") suggests extra breadth of Mengelberg’s part, but not so. As far as I
know Mengelberg was the first conductor on disc to play the long first-movement exposition repeat and for many years he was also the last. Opus Kura’s new transfer is admirably honest, to the extent of reporting the original’s strong bass response and an overall sense of acoustical tightness. The performance is rather more Classical in concept than the conductor’s later Beethoven, though there are some subtle shifts in tempo in the first movement and notable instances of portamento in the Marcia funèbre, especially towards the movement’s close. Less memorable than the best of Mengelberg’s symphony recordings from the Concertgebouw (Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Dvo∑ák) its leanness and directness are appealing. The same CD also includes a lissom Magic Flute Overture, a powerful Egmont Overture and a proudly strutting Coronation March from Meyerbeer’s Le prophète, perhaps the best performance on disc prior to van Otterloo in The Hague and Paray in Detroit. Altogether a fair sampling of Mengelberg’s work in New York, with only Ein Heldenleben as more impressive still. THE RECORDINGS Klemperer in Philadelphia, Vol 1 Bach. Brahms. Beethoven Symphony No 3 Pristine Audio b S PASC465
Klemperer in Philadelphia, Vol 2 Beethoven Symphonies Nos 6 & 7. Mozart. Schumann Pristine Audio b S PASC467 Beethoven. Mozart. Meyerbeer Mengelberg Opus Kura F OPK2115
gramophone.co.uk