This is my second article about the first volume of the Warner Classics Remastered Edition of recordings of the conductor Otto Klemperer that is structured around two composers that were contemporaries. The contemporaries of the previous article were Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for which Haydn’s share consisted of only four CDs. In this second pairing, Richard Strauss is the composer that receives very little attention alongside the recordings of the music of Gustav Mahler.
Indeed, three of Strauss’ compositions were recorded twice. In chronological order these are the Opus 20 “Don Juan” tone poem, the Opus 28 “Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks,” and the “Dance of the Seven Veils” instrumental extract from the Opus 54 opera Salome. To be fair, the first recordings of these three selections have historical interest, since they were originally released as 78 RPM recordings. The other Strauss works to be recorded were the Opus 24 tone poem “Death and Transfiguration” and “Metamorphosen,” which Strauss called a “study” for 23 solo strings (ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three basses).
I have not yet put much time into distinguishing the early German recordings (made in Berlin between 1927 and 1929) from the “higher fidelity” recordings made with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Klemperer clearly had his own strong ideas about how these selections should be interpreted, and those ideas make for satisfying listening in both selections. However, I have a much stronger preference for “Metamorphosen,” which is far less frequently encountered.
Nevertheless, that preference is a result of the fact that I have yet to get my head around this composition and am determined to keep trying. (Those that have followed this site for some time may recall that, back in November of 2021, I even tried to mine clarity from a video that was directed by Frank Zamacona using robotically controlled cameras.) To be fair, however, on this new release I am not sure whether my understanding of “Metamorphosen” has been advanced as a result of Klemperer’s approach to conducting or of the efforts of Balance Engineer Douglas Larter!
For my own tastes, the Mahler selections that appeal to me the most are the ones that involve vocalists. More specifically, I relished the opportunity to return to two female vocalists, one soprano and one mezzo, that I had been following since my student days. The soprano is Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, who contributes to two of the symphonies: the second (“Resurrection”) in C minor and the fourth in G major, whose final movement is a setting of a poem from the Des Knaben Wunderhorn collection. The mezzo is Christa Ludwig, who alternates with tenor Fritz Wunderlich in the recording of the Das Lied von der Erde (the song of the earth) orchestral song cycle. She also contributes five tracks of orchestral songs, two from Des Knaben Wunderhorn and three from the Rückert-Lieder collection. (It turns out that those three songs are the same ones that she recorded with pianist Geoffrey Parsons for the third BBC Legends collection.)
The instrumental selections are limited to two of the late symphonies, the seventh in E minor and the ninth in D major. Both of these are sufficiently long that they have to be distributed across two CDs The ninth is the more familiar and also the more satisfying. On the other hand Klemperer seems to have decided to take an “extreme interpretation” of the Langsam tempo that begins the seventh symphony. It even extends into the other four movements, never loosening the reins of the tempo, so to speak. This made for growing frustration during my own listening experience, leading to an almost total undermining of the final movement.
Perhaps some day I shall come to understand the logic behind Klemperer’s approach to that seventh symphony.
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