Search - Otto Klemperer, Alun Francis, Rheinland-Pfalz Staatsphilharmonie :: Otto Klemperer: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Four Symphonic Works

Careful with this one

Jon T. Giles | 04/29/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Biographers explain that Klemperer, who suffered from bi-polar disorder most of his adult life, wrote frantically during manic episodes, and then often destroyed his compositions during periods of depression. It is easy to interpret mania in the pages of the works on this CD - particularly in the Symphony No 1, which is almost comical in many of its melodic and structural elements. Unfortunately, it makes for some uncomfortable listening. The Symphony No 2 is more uniform, but also not very distinuished. The performances here are top-notch and well recorded - but can't make up for the subject matter. Careful when purchasing, unless you know what you are getting into.



In an almost disturbingly parallel way, the liner notes (in translation) also appear to be written by someone not quite certain where their thoughts were going. Don't count on getting any reliable information about Klemperer or the pieces on the recording from these liner notes."

Klemperer as a Not-Very-Original Composer

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/30/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains Klemperer's two symphonies, composed in the 1960s. You wouldn't be able to tell they were written that late in the century without reading the notes, because they, and particularly the First Symphony, partake of the musical language of post-Wagnerian composers like Raff. There are some faint whiffs of Mahler's ironic sarcasm (as in the false-note quotation of the Marseillaise in the First) but on the whole Klemperer's melodic ideas are loose-limbed and lackadaisical (even kind of goofy at times) with strange feminine endings and added-on dissonances. The Second Symphony is a bit more modern-sounding, but again the dissonances seem plastered on rather than organic.



The mood lightens with the next work, the 'Merry Waltz,' which is just that; it's a knock-off of Richard Strauss's waltzes (think 'Rosenkavalier' or 'Arabella') and not bad, either. It's no surprise that it was Klemperer's only marginally popular composition. That is followed by 'Marcia funèbre' and 'Recollections' which are in much the same language, although of a more serious demeanor. The CD ends with 'Scherzo,' which is quasi-Hindemithian and, to my ears, a dead loss.



Alun Francis and his Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz play with conviction and skill, and the recorded sound, although a little recessed, is good at the proper volume setting. I'd advise anyone intensely interested in hearing what Klemperer had to say as a composer to look for his own recording of his Second Symphony and the 'Merry Waltz.' Presumably, master conductor that he was, he got what he wanted from an orchestra in his own works. This is not to say, however, that Francis and his band don't do a good job.



A tepid recommendation, then.



TT=65:45



Scott Morrison"