Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
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. Karajan had molded the Philharmonia players into a cohesive, responsive, and potently sonorous body, but Klemperer brought something new to the party, a gravitas and bearing that encouraged the orchestra to play with inner warmth and lent tremendous authority to this reading of the Ninth, recorded in Kingsway Hall during the course of the cycle. Klemperer's conception is monumental, but never ponderous or self-consciously weighty: he is, if anything, understated in the climaxes, but the account is nevertheless towering in its cumulative effect. In the symphony's first movement, he observes the tempo marking "Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso" with rare self-control; there is no rush, and the movement takes on a granitic purposefulness as a result. The scherzo is animated without being frenzied, and the adagio is simply beautiful--direct, full of warmth and nobility. With a mostly splendid set of soloists, and a brilliantly prepared chorus, the finale, that splendid hymn to joy, becomes a gesture of real magnificence. Klemperer makes it one sweeping utterance, with none of the choppy, episodic feel one so often finds in it. EMI's recording is beautifully balanced and presents an outstanding stereo image. Klemperer's left-right seating of the violins registers to great effect, and the winds and brass are precisely placed, with every detail in their parts coming through clearly. A triumph, considering the vintage, and beautifully restored in this new 24-bit remastering. --Ted Libbey
Klemperer Legacy - Beethoven: Symphony no. 9, Prometheus Overture / Ludwig, Hotter, Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra, et al, Music, Hans Hotter, Ludwig van Beethoven, Otto Klemperer, Christa Ludwig, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Aase Nordmo Lovberg, Aase Nordmo Lövberg, Aase Nordmo-Løvberg, Waldemar Kmentt, Otto Klemperer, Aase Nordmo-Lovberg, Christa Ludwig, Waldemar Kmennt, Hans Hotter, Philharmonia Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra, Ballet, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Orchestral & Symphonic, Romantic Ballet, Romantic Symphony, Symphonic
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