Mozart Symphony Number 25.

Posted by: George Fredrik on 22 December 2010

Mozart Symphony Number 25 in the most incredible performance of any of his Symphonies that I have ever listened to.

Klemperer with the Concertgebeow Orchestra in 1951. A concert where clearly the moment was more important than safety. This is a "Sturm und Drang" symphony such as Haydn wrote many stormy examples of in his middle period before the perfection found in the series from the Paris symphonies to the London set, but here we find the young Mozart in G minor mode managing everything that his older friend managed, and in this performance Klemperer leaves us in no doubt about the "angst" inherent in the music!

First Movement

Second Movement

Minuet and Trio

Finale.

Please do persist past the frightful lacquer disc recording from Dutch Radio. In every way it is a great performance of great music.

The Dutch critic Bertus van Lier commented that Klemperer did not conduct the music, but that he was conducted by the music ..."

ATB from George
Posted on: 23 December 2010 by mikeeschman
Very nice George! Easily the best I have heard a Mozart Symphony done. But the sound is awful, at least on computer speakers.
Posted on: 23 December 2010 by George Fredrik
It was just something I found, and wanted to share!

Here is another great performance though this time I believe that Klemperer is conducting the Berlin State Opera Orchestra in the 1920s Weimar Republic time! There were three Opera Houses in Berlin at the time, and Klemperer was chief at the Kroll Opera, which was a left leaning and modernist organisation which presented the newest operas of the day as well as the then rarely performed operas of Mozart such as Cosi, and Klemperer was often cheered by audiences with the cry of, "Vive K'L'Emperor!" He also director of regular concert series with the Berlin Phil and State Opera organisations.

The sonics are not fine but the performance makes one wonder why Klemperer was passed over for Furtwangler for the Berlin Phil after the death of Artur Nickisch!! He was considerd, but his left wing politics certainly offended against the conservative politics at the BPO.

Coriolan Overture in 1927

Though this is a metronome speed performance it seems to have momentum and all the necessary space for full expression! I do think that Immerseel may have learned a few things about how to retain expressive space within brisk tempi such as Klemperer was famous for! It was at this time when Klemperer had been experimenting with "period instruments" and using small orchestra to recreate the correct balance of winds to strings ...

This performance is within a second or two the same length in time as the one from Immerseel on the the new Beethoven Symphony cycle currently under discussion ...

ATB from George
Posted on: 23 December 2010 by George Fredrik
Fidelio Overture in Budapest in 1948?

After the War, Klemperer had a big problem. Where was he to go? In Germany there was no return to be made at least for a regular job, though he guested frequently in Berlin and elsewhere such as Koln. In the US he was in trouble for his Communist politics, and only in Budapest did his politics and back-ground seem to be no bar, at least till the Communists there tbegan to find him suspect for have spent the Second War in the USA! Eventually he settled artistically in London after a few rootless years.

His main artistic work in London was with the Philharmonia from 1954 on, but he was officially resident in Switzerland by then.

He was still known for his very advanced modernist performances even through the fifties in London, and even on occasion the old fires would burn with white heat again there into the sixties and seventies, though he was not always consistently on good form in his extreme old age. It is from these late performances mainly from the mid-sixties on that he became infamous for some extremely slow tempi, but even as late as 1973 he made some great Haydn symphony recordings, which demonstrated that the old fire was still burning!

ATB from George
Posted on: 24 December 2010 by ClaudeP
George,

What a great find. I barely know Klemperer, and I took the time to listen to all 4 movements.

What a gteat way to start a day off. Thank you.

Claude