In contrast to his renowned postwar recordings for Decca, Erich Kleiber’s not inconsiderable 78 rpm legacy has yet to fully be tapped by CD reissue labels. Teldec’s Kleiber reissue brings together some of the conductor’s finest Telefunken sides with the Berlin Philharmonic from the early 1930s, along with a few selections that are not so memorable. Two pieces are rendered unlistenable due to careless pitching in the transfer process. Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture commences at score pitch, and eight minutes later ends a full half-tone flat! A similar pitch sag effects the Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini Overture to a lesser but painfully noticeable degree. Fortunately, the remaining 52 minutes of music sound absolutely fine in Bryan Crymp’s quiet yet impactive restorations. The Hungarian March from Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust is breathlessly paced, chock-full of pungent detail, and excellently recorded for its time. Taut, flexible readings of Lanner’s Die Schönbrunner and Strauss’ Accelerations Waltz also stand out, as do the conductor’s disciplined traversals of overtures from Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor, Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, and Reznicek’s bubbly Donna Diana. The Berlin Philharmonic, however, rises to but fails to surmount the ethereal, cruelly exposed textural minefields throughout Stravinsky’s Fireworks. And you can get a more affectionate (and better sounding) taste of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier Waltzes through Kleiber’s classic 1953 recording of the opera in toto. Until the aforementioned pitching problems are fixed, I can only recommend this CD with caution.
