GREAT RECORDINGS phase 17

MAHLER
Symphony No.9

RICHARD STRAUSS
Metamorphosen · Tod und Verklärung

Otto Klemperer
New Philharmonia & Philharmonia Orchestras

3 80008 2

Stereo
ADD

Recorded 1961 & 1967
138 minutes (2CD)

Back >>

"In this famous 1967 recording of the Ninth Symphony, the conductor’s interpretation is deeply-felt, with nobility and stoic pride the keynotes, the playing is magnificent and the sound superb. The coupling is as inspired a Strauss record as I know, Klemperer projecting a searchlight of new illumination on both works."
(The Gramophone)

Otto Klemperer’s authority in the last and most harrowing of Mahler’s completed symphonies is absolute. He had first met the composer in 1906, when he was an aspiring 21-year-old Kapellmeister conducting the off-stage band in the ‘Resurrection’ Symphony.

This recording was made when Klemperer was at the height of his Indian summer, but only after he had effectively forced a reluctant EMI to record it on the strength of his overall record sales.

Klemperer was ambivalent about Richard Strauss both as man and as musician, but on the right day he brought a rare passion and intensity to Strauss’s scores. Edward Greenfield wrote of the two performances here as being as inspired as any Strauss recordings he knew.