ARC-121/25 // Klemperer: The Complete 78 rpm Recordings

Electrola, Parlophon & Polydor recordings, Berlin 1924-1932

Otto Klemperer

78 rpm Recordings Berlin 1924-1932

Auber, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Mendelssohn, Offenbach, Ravel, R. Strauss, Wagner, Weill ...

...and an unpublished radio recording (1932) with an excerpt of Hindemith`s Das Unaufhörliche

Inlay (PDF)
Booklet (PDF)

Download via ClassicsOnline (some titles also via iTunes, eClassical, Spotify et al.). More information from Werner Unger.

It is little remembered that already in the 1920s, Klemperer was one of the most important musical directors for the recording industry. This is the first reissue of his complete 78 rpm records, dating from his early career at Berlin's Kroll Opera.

Klemperer's later stereo recordings for EMI, with their slow, heavy style, give an impression of great distance, which some feel to be an emotional coldness. These early recordings, however, reveal this prejudice to be unfounded. They are full of discoveries. Though the structural approach typical for Klemperer is evident throughout, listeners can also experience a thoroughly lyrical performer with a powerfully sensual sound and surprising tempi rubati.