Perhaps the main reason you’d want this disc would be as a souvenir of the Otto Klemperer Memorial Concert, held on January 14, 1974 (assuming, of course, you were in attendance). Outside of that there is very little justification, given that Kubelik made an excellent studio Beethoven Ninth for DG that featured superior, more tightly focused playing from the Bavarian Radio Symphony, a stronger quartet of soloists, and a more penetrating reading from Kubelik himself. The timings of the two performances are virtually identical, though the Philharmonia reading adds another minute to the already spacious first movement. The scherzo is a bit of a wet-rag affair, spoiled by mushy timpani and round-edged rhythms, and the finale, while featuring fine singing by Margaret Price and Norman Bailey, is not particularly memorable. Throw in boxy, hissy recorded sound and you’ve got plenty of reason to go for the DG (especially when you get Symphonies 7 & 8 as well). Kubelik’s concert opener, Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music, takes substantially longer than even Klemperer’s EMI performance. In fact, if you really want to honor Klemperer’s career as a Beethoven and Mozart conductor, his own recordings are readily available.
