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Symposium has been
charting Klemperer’s early recording
career – see Nos 1042 and 1204 in their
edition. It certainly was an erratic
and odd series of discs for Polydor,
Parlophone-Odeon and Electrola, recorded
between 1924 (late acoustics) and 1931.
Klemperer didn’t record again until
1946 when he made a set of the Brandenburg
Concertos in Paris with the Pro Musica
Chamber Orchestra of which we are here
given No. 5. There are no acoustics
in this release.
Looking through John
Hunt’s Klemperer discography makes interesting
reading. This early recording of the
Euryanthe Overture from 1927 was the
only Weber he was to record until 1960
when he recorded three overtures for
Columbia (now on an EMI CD); Euryanthe,
Oberon and Die Freischütz. Some
of the string tone tends to thinness
but it’s a buoyant reading, as is Beethoven’s
F major Symphony. Though the winds can
be rather nasal Klemperer is especially
fine in the Minuet and allows a goodly
amount of portamento in the Rondo finale;
there is however considerable imprecision
elsewhere.
The Brandenburg D major
Concerto features a trio of fine French
soloists, harpsichordist Roesgen-Champion,
flautist Cortet and violinist Merckel,
one of the most characterful of that
contemporary crop of French fiddlers.
We know Klemperer’s Brandenburgs best
by the October 1960 Philharmonia cycle
but he recorded this earlier 1946 set,
made in Paris with the Pro Musica Chamber
Orchestra. Roesgen-Champion shows it
was not just Landowska who demonstrated
Bachian harpsichord credentials in Paris
at around this time (though Landowska
of course had left Paris by now). She
is fluent and her cadenza is powerful,
Cortet is marvellously agile and Merckel
is elegant – the tempo in the first
movement can drag a little but the soloists
aerate it. The shaping of the slow movement
is lyrical yet alive whilst the Allegro
finale can be a little stolid (especially
in the bass line) but Roesgen-Champion
shines once more.
The Mozart is relatively
attractive; a little fierce in places
perhaps in the Romanza and impatient
in the Minuet but the 1931 Brahms Academic
Festival Overture is fine and spacious
– he returned to it with the Philharmonia
thirty years later.
The transfers are generally
fine; some blasting – which could have
been minimised - and wear on a few of
the sides but Symposium has retained
the full range of frequencies. This
is another in the growing line of early
Klemperers and a boon to collectors.
Jonathan Woolf
Roesgen-Champion (harpsichord), R Cortet (flute)
and Henri Merckel (violin) in the Bach 