Otto Klemperer’s mono recordings of Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 3, 5, and 7 are historic in several senses. Not only are they terrific performances by themselves, but they also launched the conductor on the magnificent Indian summer of his career, a period that saw him acclaimed as the greatest interpreter of the basic German repertoire for much of the 1950s and ’60s. Klemperer always conducted a sensational Eroica, and by general consensus this mono recording surpasses his later stereo effort, impressive though that is. Truth to tell, I wouldn’t be without either. This version offers marginally quicker tempos in all four movements, but the later version enjoys superior playing and recording–and both offer basically the same conception: strong, unsentimental, and truly “heroic”.
These qualities apply equally to the two overtures, both marvelous performances, and this reissue positively celebrates the excellence of the original mono recordings. They sound superior to many stereo efforts from the mid-’50s, and there’s no doubt at all that Klemperer’s Eroica belongs in EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century series, not to mention in your record collection! [5/15/2002]
