Prepare to skim-read if you’re one of those
perverse souls not into the minutiae of sexy discographies and
their nexus with the wacky world of mysterious reissue companies.
With due thanks to the diligence of an excellent source of Kleiber
information this represents, as best as I can note it, the state
of affairs with regard to these four particular performances:-
Tchaikovsky
4 - Urania: URN 22.116
(1999) Tahra: TAH-450 (2002) Music & Arts: CD-1112 (4CDs)
(2002) Andromeda: ANDRCD 5005(3CDs) (2005)
Tchaikovsky
6 - Nuova
Era: 2338/39 (2CDs) (1989) Seven Seas: KICC 2079 (1990) Originals:
SH 839 (1995) Archipel: ARPCD 0321 (2005) Medici Masters: MM003-2
(2007)
Schubert 5 -
Nuova Era: 2338/39 (2CDs) (1989) IMG: 5 75115 2(2CDs) (2002)
Urania: RM 11.902 (2003)
Schubert 8 -
Musica Classica: MC 2003/4 (2CDs) (1989) Teldec: 9031-76436-2
(1996) Preiser: 90229 (1994) Grammofono: AB 78 609 (1996) Theorema:
TH 121225 (1996) Arlecchino: ARL180 Grammofono: AB 78 802 (1998)
Cantus: CACD 5.00189 (2CDs) (2001) Classica D'or: CDO 1036 (2001)
Teldec: 0927 42664 2 (2002) Archipel: ARPCD 0199 (2004) Artone:
222355-354 (4CDs) (2005) Berlin Philharmoniker: BPH0603 (2006)
The Tchaikovsky
4 comes from a concert on 3 January 1948. The composer was hardly
an interest of Toscanini’s but Kleiber certainly didn’t share
the Italian’s indifference or hostility and nor did Toscanini’s
despised sometime co-conductor of the NBC, Leopold Stokowski.
There’s excitement in Kleiber’s Fourth but also plenty of orchestral
clarity. He gives the folk-inflected passage for clarinet and
flute from 5’02 a certain deadpan elegance. He can be stern
yet yielding when necessary. Some mushiness intrudes on the
acetates in this movement however, especially on string forte
passages from 14:30 onwards and there are moments of negligible,
but audible, radio interference. The close of the movement brings
an impressed burst of applause. Scuffs and acetate chugs attend
the second movement. I admired the linearity of Kleiber’s conducting
here and the intensely emphatic string moulding, especially
the passage from 1:29 to 1:32 and its analogue in the wind choir.
Indeed the fluency and strength of the Scherzo and Finale are
testament to Kleiber’s dynamism and orchestral mastery. There’s
nothing over lingering about his interpretation; it obeys the
proprieties with expressive tautness.
The Pathétique
is reminiscent of the October 1953 performance Kleiber gave
with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra now on Testament SBT2
1352 where it’s coupled with the Fourth – an outstandingly conducted
brace of readings. The avid and muscular power Kleiber generates
with the NDR is certainly comparable to the commercial disc
– the extra adrenalin and darkening curve of the German broadcast
reinforces the assertive dynamism, wide dynamic range and tense
emotive content of his Tchaikovsky conducting.
The NDR Schubert
Fifth is forward moving without sounding rushed. Phrasing sounds
natural and lissom with a natural agitation in the rhythmic
profile. Adhering to the con moto indication he takes
the slow movement more bracingly than Beecham, more affectionately
and lightly than Walter. The central section is contrastingly
powerful. Winds throughout respond warmly to his direction.
The sectional balance is tight. The Unfinished is the
only commercial recording and by some way the earliest – Berlin,
1935. The sound is not at all bad for the vintage but this fine
performance has been very much reissued over the years, as a
look at the previous incarnations will show. Its reappearance
here so soon after its re-release on the Berlin Philharmonic’s
own label means that Kleiber adherents will find it less of
an inducement.
IDIS has trawled
persistently with this disc. It’s done no meaningfully helpful
restorative work and there are no notes, as with so many of
this kind of production.
Jonathan Woolf
West German Radio
Orchestra/Erich Kleiber, rec. 1955
