Original Masters - Erich Kleiber
Posted by: Todd A on 06 March 2005
Here’s another set that I knew I’d buy as soon as I saw it was released. Erich Kleiber is one of my very favorite conductors, and at his best he is simply unsurpassable. Why, he even made a Fidelio that I love! Indeed, of all the recordings I have by him, many are either my favorite versions of a given work (Fidelio, Der Freischutz, Le Nozze di Figaro) or rate right up there with the very best (the Eroica and the Fifth). He’s able to withstand comparison with the great conductors born in the last two centuries, there is no doubt, and as good as his son was, he could still show him up.
This six-disc set is for all intents and purposes a Beethoven box with a few other items thrown in for flavor. In it, one gets two Eroicas, two Pastorales, the Fifth, the Seventh, and the Ninth. Beyond Lou’s stuff, one also gets Schubert’s Ninth, Mozart’s 39 and 40 along with some German Dances, and Weber’s First Symphony. It’s a very Teutonic box.
But I have a problem: how to adequately describe its qualities? With Kleiber as with Klemperer or Walter or Toscanini or any other podium giant, I more or less take his approach for granted and just sit back and soak up the music. I don’t really sit there and split hairs – to do so would be fruitless. Generally, of course, Kleiber runs a tight ship: his conducting is generally direct and unencumbered by odd idiosyncrasies; while not being a speed demon, he tends toward the brisker side of things; he manages to extract detail while maintaining the line; he’s deadly serious. All in all, he’s what a great conductor of the German repertoire should be. And he succeeds. That’s not to say he doesn’t allow himself and his artists expressive freedom, or that his interpretations are the same – they’re not – it’s just that with Papa Kleiber one gets what one expects.
Accordingly, the works are all performed to a high standard. I’ll start with the two Eroicas. The 1950 Concertgebouw recording has been one of my favorite versions for a while, and revisiting it merely reaffirmed that. His is a forceful, urgent reading of grandeur. But the 1953 Vienna recording is even better! He maintains all of the same qualities, but adds a greater degree of flexibility in the tempi and phrasing, and the Vienna band play splendidly. Straight to the top of top of the heap this newcomer goes, along with at least a half-dozen others.
The Pastorales tell a somewhat different story. The 1949 LPO falls a bit shy of the level of executive excellence I prefer, and while Kleiber makes the best of it, the 1953 Concertgebouw recording is superior. It is still big boned and strong, but it is appropriately beautiful and, well, pastoral in nature. (Right in between the two qualitatively, though closer to the Concertgebouw performance, is his recording with the Czech Philharmonic in his Great Conductors set.) He doesn’t quite scale the same dizzying heights as Bohm or Furtwangler, but he misses by very little.
The Fifth is a justly famous performance and one of the best on record. While not as swift as what HIPsters offer nowadays, it still maintains an inexorable forward momentum, and when those C major chords erupt in the finale, one’s spine still tingles. What else can be said of a well-known great recording?
But not all of his Beethoven is as successful. The Seventh is only three-quarters successful. All goes famously through the first three movements, with plenty o’ momentum in the opening movement and with an appropriately somber but never labored slow movement, but what the hell happens in the finale? It is too slow and stodgy and almost ruins the effect. This prevents it from climbing too far up the LvB ladder, and here is one instance where the son clearly bests the father, as do a number of others.
The Ninth, too, falls short of the best. It never really catches fire. The opening is fine enough, and the Adagio is very well played, and the soloists and chorus all do well enough, but where’s the titanic greatness one needs? And where’s the thrill when the Ode to Joy theme finally emerges in the full orchestra. That moment is disturbingly weak. Again, a very good performance, but much better can be had.
The other works follow a similar pattern. His Mozart G-minor – also included in the Great Conductors set – is admirably big and beefy and still swift enough to work. (If the main theme of the opening movement is taken too slowly, the entire work dies.) By today’s standards it’s too much, but today’s standards be damned! The E Flat symphony is the same way. If you like old-world Mozart, you’ll like this. If not, you won’t. The selection of Mozart German Dances is eminently disposable, so nothing more need be said about them.
The Weber is interesting, but that’s it. I’ll just fess up: I don’t find Weber’s two symphonies very good. Even the fleet and nimble Neville Marriner can’t make them sound fleet or brief enough, and while Kleiber fleshes out the First a bit more and makes it more impressive, it’s still third-rate stuff.
And so that leaves Schubert’s Great C-major. This is a work that I find myself liking less as time goes by. It’s too long and too repetitive. Where Schubert could indeed write pieces of heavenly length for the piano or chamber ensembles, his grand symphony just proves that he was no match for the great German symphonists. Thus far, only Bohm and Furtwangler (that twosome again) have been able to hold my rapt attention from start to finish, and while Kleiber does a far better than average job, really making a meal of some parts of the work, he can’t save it from it’s inevitable fate. If only Papa had recorded more Schubert. (There is a sparkling Fifth in the Great Conductors set, thankfully.)
Sound is generally to a high standard, though the previous, scratchy Decca Legends transfers of the Concertgebouw Eroica and Fifth is used.
So, despite the short-comings I’ve listed, I still consider this set a resounding success. A few botched moments and a few low-quality works do not detract from the greatness on offer here. To live without both Thirds is not an option for me, and obviously I must have most of the other pieces. A must for Erich Kleiber fans.
This six-disc set is for all intents and purposes a Beethoven box with a few other items thrown in for flavor. In it, one gets two Eroicas, two Pastorales, the Fifth, the Seventh, and the Ninth. Beyond Lou’s stuff, one also gets Schubert’s Ninth, Mozart’s 39 and 40 along with some German Dances, and Weber’s First Symphony. It’s a very Teutonic box.
But I have a problem: how to adequately describe its qualities? With Kleiber as with Klemperer or Walter or Toscanini or any other podium giant, I more or less take his approach for granted and just sit back and soak up the music. I don’t really sit there and split hairs – to do so would be fruitless. Generally, of course, Kleiber runs a tight ship: his conducting is generally direct and unencumbered by odd idiosyncrasies; while not being a speed demon, he tends toward the brisker side of things; he manages to extract detail while maintaining the line; he’s deadly serious. All in all, he’s what a great conductor of the German repertoire should be. And he succeeds. That’s not to say he doesn’t allow himself and his artists expressive freedom, or that his interpretations are the same – they’re not – it’s just that with Papa Kleiber one gets what one expects.
Accordingly, the works are all performed to a high standard. I’ll start with the two Eroicas. The 1950 Concertgebouw recording has been one of my favorite versions for a while, and revisiting it merely reaffirmed that. His is a forceful, urgent reading of grandeur. But the 1953 Vienna recording is even better! He maintains all of the same qualities, but adds a greater degree of flexibility in the tempi and phrasing, and the Vienna band play splendidly. Straight to the top of top of the heap this newcomer goes, along with at least a half-dozen others.
The Pastorales tell a somewhat different story. The 1949 LPO falls a bit shy of the level of executive excellence I prefer, and while Kleiber makes the best of it, the 1953 Concertgebouw recording is superior. It is still big boned and strong, but it is appropriately beautiful and, well, pastoral in nature. (Right in between the two qualitatively, though closer to the Concertgebouw performance, is his recording with the Czech Philharmonic in his Great Conductors set.) He doesn’t quite scale the same dizzying heights as Bohm or Furtwangler, but he misses by very little.
The Fifth is a justly famous performance and one of the best on record. While not as swift as what HIPsters offer nowadays, it still maintains an inexorable forward momentum, and when those C major chords erupt in the finale, one’s spine still tingles. What else can be said of a well-known great recording?
But not all of his Beethoven is as successful. The Seventh is only three-quarters successful. All goes famously through the first three movements, with plenty o’ momentum in the opening movement and with an appropriately somber but never labored slow movement, but what the hell happens in the finale? It is too slow and stodgy and almost ruins the effect. This prevents it from climbing too far up the LvB ladder, and here is one instance where the son clearly bests the father, as do a number of others.
The Ninth, too, falls short of the best. It never really catches fire. The opening is fine enough, and the Adagio is very well played, and the soloists and chorus all do well enough, but where’s the titanic greatness one needs? And where’s the thrill when the Ode to Joy theme finally emerges in the full orchestra. That moment is disturbingly weak. Again, a very good performance, but much better can be had.
The other works follow a similar pattern. His Mozart G-minor – also included in the Great Conductors set – is admirably big and beefy and still swift enough to work. (If the main theme of the opening movement is taken too slowly, the entire work dies.) By today’s standards it’s too much, but today’s standards be damned! The E Flat symphony is the same way. If you like old-world Mozart, you’ll like this. If not, you won’t. The selection of Mozart German Dances is eminently disposable, so nothing more need be said about them.
The Weber is interesting, but that’s it. I’ll just fess up: I don’t find Weber’s two symphonies very good. Even the fleet and nimble Neville Marriner can’t make them sound fleet or brief enough, and while Kleiber fleshes out the First a bit more and makes it more impressive, it’s still third-rate stuff.
And so that leaves Schubert’s Great C-major. This is a work that I find myself liking less as time goes by. It’s too long and too repetitive. Where Schubert could indeed write pieces of heavenly length for the piano or chamber ensembles, his grand symphony just proves that he was no match for the great German symphonists. Thus far, only Bohm and Furtwangler (that twosome again) have been able to hold my rapt attention from start to finish, and while Kleiber does a far better than average job, really making a meal of some parts of the work, he can’t save it from it’s inevitable fate. If only Papa had recorded more Schubert. (There is a sparkling Fifth in the Great Conductors set, thankfully.)
Sound is generally to a high standard, though the previous, scratchy Decca Legends transfers of the Concertgebouw Eroica and Fifth is used.
So, despite the short-comings I’ve listed, I still consider this set a resounding success. A few botched moments and a few low-quality works do not detract from the greatness on offer here. To live without both Thirds is not an option for me, and obviously I must have most of the other pieces. A must for Erich Kleiber fans.