KLEMPERER conducts Mozart, Vol. 1 (1956-60) - PASC599

“These are typical of the Klemperer approach to Mozart: serious performances, emphasising the power of the music - some will think, at the cost of other virtues. Yet they are not lacking in grace and even in humour when that is called for (note the second clarinet's playing in the Trio of No. 39). But it is mostly true that the grace is a grave grace rather than light elegance.

Personally I find these performances most satisfying, ones that I want to hear again and again, but if you want your Mozart handled more lightly, then you will prefer Solti's Prague (or possibly Gui's, if you do not mind one or two rather affected touches which hardly spoil the whole): and as to No. 39, either Beecham or Karajan. My own reaction was to find Klemperer's performances both of tremendous insight and completely compelling. At the same time I should not always want to hear Mozart played in this way.

Those who enjoy making interpretative comparisons will be interested in the introduction to the Prague, played by Klemperer in dramatic style and almost twice as fast as Gui. Klemperer takes the direction adagio to refer to the crotchet, Gui to the quaver. I need hardly say that the results are so different that they can hardly, in fact, be compared. But who is to say which Mozart intended?

Klemperer has the advantage of recent recording in the forward clarity and fullness of sound, superior to the other recommended versions, good as they may be. Woodwind balance is excellent, timpani are dynamic not only from the recording but also from the way Klemperer handles them.”

T.H., The Gramophone, November 1957
Review of Mozart Symphonies 38 and 39*
(*Symphony No. 39 appears in Volume 2 of this series)

Otto Klemperer's stereo Mozart recordings with the Philiharmonia Orchestra, as represented in this series of three volumes, dates from between 1954 and 1962. During these years there were multiple advances in sound recording technology, leaving us with a collection of recordings which suffer quite a diversity in sound quality.

My principle aims in the remastering of these recordings are not only to raise the quality of all of them, but to achieve a better balance of sound between them, such that the listener no longer experiences a great lurch in audio quality when moving from one of the earliest to one of the latest of the set. While the improvements may be more marginal towards the end of the series, the earlier recordings have been greatly enhanced by these new XR remasters.

Andrew Rose