Tuesday 22 June 2004

Plus ça change ... I have found myself listening with great pleasure to Furtwängler (Beethoven symphonies in the early 1950s on CPO) and Klemperer (Hamburg concerts of Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner from 1955 and 1966). After all the conductors have come and gone, Wilhelm Furwängler and Otto Klemperer are left standing taller than ever. I even enjoy Klemperer's Mozart recordings; his typical wind-forward orchestral balance, and his concentration on tempo, balance and phrasing have come to mean that his performances come over as timeless classics. It is extremely fortunate that both recorded in Germany and in Europe, and late enough so that not too many allowances need to be made for inferior sound. Klemperer's Bruckner seventh, to which I listened yesterday evening (Hamburg, 1966) seems to me much better than his studio version with the Philharmonia. But, there again, I am coming to the conclusion after fifty years of listening that almost all live recordings are to be preferred to studio versions.

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