Beethoven: Symphony 9 'Choral' (The Previously Unpublished Live Recording From The Royal Festival Hall, 15.11.1957) [Import]

Beethoven (Composer), Otto Klemperer (Conductor), Philharmonia Orch & Chorus (Orchestra), Christa Ludwig (Performer), Han Hotter (Performer), Aase Nordmo-Lovberg (Performer), Waldemar Kmennt (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Christa Ludwig, Han Hotter, Aase Nordmo-Lovberg, Waldemar Kmennt
• Orchestra: Philharmonia Orch & Chorus
• Conductor: Otto Klemperer
• Composer: Beethoven
• Audio CD (November 16, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Testament UK
• ASIN: B00002MXTT
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,723 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprising Ninth., February 7, 2002

By 

Plaza Marcelino (Caracas Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beethoven: Symphony 9 'Choral' (The Previously Unpublished Live Recording From The Royal Festival Hall, 15.11.1957) (Audio CD)

The nineties saw the appearance, especially from the EMI stables, of a group of recordings taken live at actual concerts conducted by Otto Klemperer and authorised for release by his estate, some of them taped perhaps too late in his career but very interesting to compare with studio efforts. Live Klemperer recordings have been indeed uncommon, since the conductor was able to studio-record the vast majority of the repertoire that made him famous, a susprising quantity of it in stereo in view of Klemperer's long life span (he lived close to 90). The late fifties saw the recording and release of the conductor's famous HMV stereo set of the Beethoven 9 symphonies, never out of the catalogue since then. I don't know why this recording of Beethoven's Op. 125, taken at a RFH concert in November 1957 was made or if it was ever meant to be released to the general public when EMI put it on tape, but collectors must for ever thank Testament for making it available. If you're acquainted with the Klemperer style mostly from the EMI studio recordings made from the late '50s onwards, you're in for a big, big susprise. On the outside, this live ninth is not strikingly different from the studio recording, made less than a month later with the same participants and available also from EMI in a single disc or as part of the complete 9 symphonies set. But how different it sounds! There's a tense, thrilling atmosphere throughout that is far less present in the studio, as Klemperer --like most of the conductors of his generation, one that comprised monsters of the art like Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler or Erich Kleiber-- could be radically different in a concert hall, before an audience, than in the studio, and this recording does show it all-round. Besides, in 1957 he clearly still had a strength or power of expression that a few years later, save for a few exceptions, age had signifficantly taken away and replaced with idiosyncracies that tended to mar a number of those recordings he made during the last 5 or 6 years of his life (a significant example of this lies in his Bruckner 8th). This ninth is exhuberant with life, joy and dramatic tension, everything fits readily into place and some of the tempi may even susprise listeners more used to Klemperer's famous slowness, here apparent mostly in the scherzo, a slowness that many US record reviewers liked so much to criticise as "pedantic" during the sixties. So, in spite of an over-emphatic timpanist and Hotter's tendency to wobble and miss a few notes in the last movement, this a "Choral Symphony" to place among the very greatest ever put on disc. The sound is very good and clear (stereo, most unusual for a live recording dating from 1957), the conductor's usual orchestral layout a definite plus and Klemperer's legendary exigence of clarity of intonation and articulation very well followed by a Philharmonia Orchestra that at the time was one of the world's greatest orchestras. A must then, and if Testament can dig out similar Klemperer material from record company vaults, may they be blessed for ever!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grand and Powerful!, July 1, 2000

By 

Lincoln-63542 (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beethoven: Symphony 9 'Choral' (The Previously Unpublished Live Recording From The Royal Festival Hall, 15.11.1957) (Audio CD)

When I bought this CD to add to my collection of the Ninth I was not expecting it to rise to my Top 5 Favorites as it did. I compare its vitality and its strenght, as much as the execution of the instruments, particularly the drumming with the one by W. Furtwangler, Lucerne Festival 1953. Is that powerful and passionate! . The Tempo is excellent, the sound is great, the performance of the Soloists and the Philharmonia Chorus is awesome. Kemplerer is taking himself to the category of Sublime here in this rendition. Truly a Testament of Glory and Majesty. The CD is expensive but it worth every penny in performance and sound. Go for it!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epic 9th, June 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Beethoven: Symphony 9 'Choral' (The Previously Unpublished Live Recording From The Royal Festival Hall, 15.11.1957) (Audio CD)

I love this Beethoven 9th!! It's fantastic. It's a 'live' recording - not patched together, and the timpani comes through thrillingly. This 'live' concert is far better than Klemperer's studio recording. And Klemperer's studio recording was considered a classic!! You must be prepared for some audience noise though. But I'm not really bothered about it given the incandescent performance of this Beethoven's 9th.