Klemperer Recordings of Beethoven

I should begin with a qualification of a previous claim. When I wrote that conductor Otto Klemperer had given more attention to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart than to Ludwig van Beethoven, I was counting the number of different compositions that the conductor and performer had recorded. Where the number of CDs in the Warner Classics Remastered Edition are concerned, Beethoven has it over Mozart hands-down.

That is because there are multiple recordings of four of the nine symphonies as well as the collection of four overtures associated with the Opus 72 opera Fidelio. However, the only duplicate recording that drew my attention was the second CD of the Opus 125 (ninth, known as “Choral”) symphony in D minor, because it recorded a concert performance in the Royal Festival Hall that preceded the studio sessions with the same personnel. It is also worth noting that the “live” recording was being released for the first time in this collection.

Personally, I feel that there is little to be gained from having the results of multiple recording sessions at one’s disposal where this particular repertoire is concerned. Klemperer brought well-disciplined interpretations to all of his Beethoven recordings; but, where my own listening experiences are concerned, none of them prompted me to sit up and take notice. My “diagnosis” of this situation is that, particularly during the second half of the twentieth century, Beethoven performances were worked to death, whether they were in the concert hall or in the recording studio. Put another way, it is too easy to get too saturated with Beethoven; and I have to say that, in my own listening experiences in Davies Symphony Hall, I have come to feel relieved by conductors that no longer think that Beethoven compositions constitute essential (and frequent) listening encounters.

Beyond the symphonies and Fidelio overtures, things are not much better. Four CDs account for the concertante compositions, but the soloists for those performances never seem to ignite many (if any) sparks. The recording of Yehudi Menuhin playing the Opus 61 violin concerto in D major sounds as if he had played the work too many times. (Since the recording was made in 1966, he probably had played it too many times.) The soloist for the five piano concertos, along with the Opus 80 “Choral” fantasia, was Daniel Barenboim. In 1967 he was at the other end of the “experience arc,” just beginning to establish his own “credentials.” Unfortunately, this meant that the recordings were consistently dutiful but rarely stimulating.

Where the recorded performances of Beethoven are concerned, the Klemperer sessions tend to lean more towards quantity than towards imaginative quality.