Klemperer

Otto Klemperer's Beethoven is one of the towering achievements in the history of recordings. By today's standards, these performances are hopelessly old-fashioned: dark, heavy, and frequently very slow. But they are also the grandest, most unsentimental, most purposeful versions in the catalog.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Otto Klemperer s death, EMI Classics pays tribute to the incomparable conductor with the release of an extensive edition of luxurious yet affordably-priced boxsets. The first batch of three is available this November. The collection of Bruckner Symphonies is a 6-CD set presenting 5 of Bruckner s symphonies including the incomplete 9th symphony that was never finished due to his death. The set presents a comprehensive survey of Klemperer s renowned conducting. His interpretations and direction remain touchstones for the EMI catalogue, despite having a stroke during brain surgery.

The Philharmonia Orchestra was in superb form in the autumn of 1957 when the opportunity came for it to perform all nine Beethoven symphonies, plus the five piano concertos, in a series of 10 concerts at London's Royal Festival Hall under the baton of Otto Klemperer. Credit for that certainly should go to Herbert von Karajan, who had been the orchestra's principal conductor since its founding a decade earlier, and had recently been tapped by the Berlin Philharmonic as its conductor for life.