Ludwig van Beethoven Otto Klemperer Philharmonia Orchestra - Beethoven Symphony No 3 Eroica (6 tracks) +Album Reviews

One of the truly great Eroicas

Robert J. Higgs | Kogarah Bay, NSW Australia | 10/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This mono performance, recorded in 1955, is not the same one which was released in the Klemperer legacy series (that was a stereo performance, recorded in 1959), but it is far better as an interpretation. The first movement is magnificent and it sounds as though it was recorded in a complete take. The funeral march is a little too fast, and the principal oboe does not sound sad at all, but apart from that I am sure everything is as Beethoven would have wanted it. This is a very well known recording and it deserves special attention. It is a pity that Klemperer slowed down by the time the stereo performance was made, for he ruins the first movement, and therefore the whole symphony, by his plodding tempo. Yet amazingly the stereo recording gets all the acclaim. Avoid it and buy this mono performance."

Stunner

Robert J. Higgs | 04/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Eroica is a stunner. It hardly sounds like a mono recording, so good is the recording. It is a much better interpretation than the stereo which is slower. Here Klemperer is in his element. Tempi are well-judged and flows smoothly. You are magnetized from first to last and the performance never sags. Great recording indeed. This Eroica is on Grammophone's top 100 Classical List and I can say it deserves its reputation. The reviewer below must be extremely sensitive to sonics. I listen to a lot of both mono and stereo recordings because a lot of the mono are classics (unfortunately). I can say that this mono sound is the best mono you can possibly get. In fact, if you are listening on speakers (NOT WALKMAN HEADPHONES), you probably can't tell that it's mono - just a hint. If you listen on headphones it's more obvious but the mono is still far better than normal mono."

Even better than the stereo recording on Legacy Series

HZBogani | Venezuela | 01/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Klemperer sober, unsentimental funeral march is the hallmark for me here. In the booklet you can read that even Karajan, whose 1962 Eroica is one of the best in the catalog was expecting some day to conduct the funeral march the way Klemperer does. The whole account is electrifing, very dramatic, powerful and the balance of the orchestra perfect, every line is well articulated. One of the best ever!!!."

A big, heavy Eroica running on a six-cylinder engine

John Grabowski | USA | 12/09/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I love some of Otto Klemperer's Beethoven. And in this release we have two terrifically-performed overtures (though I would have preferred his performance of the even-better Leonora No. 3 to the No. 2 herein). For those overtures alone, this CD can be justified.

But I'm not as taken with the Eroica as many other reviewers here are. I know with Klemp you're going to get a heavy, "granite" reading, with tempi generally on the slow side. Still, as Furtwangler and Karajan, anomg others, have demonstrated, you can make the piece work this way. Their recordings of the work, which reflect the grimness *and* the exultation, are among my favorites.

But the present recording sounds too "flat-footed" for my tastes. There's no fire, no intensity to the first movement of this symphony that reinvented the genre. You don't get the feeling of Beethoven flinging open the shutters of his pad and yelling, "I will triumph over my adversities starting NOW!" Those slamming chords that begin this work--BAM! BAM!--are among the most thrilling in all of music if they're done right. The buildup to the recapitulation and the ba-ba-ba-baaam rhythm in the coda--presaging his own Fifth symphony--is about as thrilling as music gets. Here my blood pressure stays put, the hairs on my back continue their slumber. It's not just a matter of tempo. There's a grimness here that to me is inappropriate for this blazing work. Now, perhaps not surprisingly, the funeral movement comes off the best--here the portentousness is very convincing, the climax shattering. This is the highlight of the performance. But the sun does not come out in the next movement, making this performance rather monochrome. And boy, do Klemperer's scherzos limp. The finale suffers from the same issues as the first movement to my ears--grimness, not enough contrast in mood or touch or texture. The big coda, my favorite part of the movement, which begins with a soulful oboe solo, just doesn't have the lift, the grand delivery, the benediction, that makes the 45-minute investment of my time worthwhile.

Sound is typical EMI mono, meaning it's also somewhat gray and in a vacuum. With great Eroicas from the same period by Karajan, Furtwangler, Bernstein, Szell, Jochum and the always-overlooked Cluytens (which just might be my personal favorite), I don't know if I really need this on my shelf. Wish I could be more positive about the great Klemperer, who does in fact do a really intense, energetic Beethoven's 8th (on the Music & Arts label), but there you have it."

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