Search - Franz Schubert, Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra :: Schubert: Symphonies #8 in B minor ("Unfinished") & #9 in C major ("Great")

Magisterial

David Saemann | 11/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you are comparing this issue of these recordings with their later remastering, it is worth noting that the sound on this CD is warm and agreeable, with excellent detail. The symphonies were recorded in Kingsway Hall three years apart, but the overall sound quality is uniformly fine. As for the performances, they are sublime. The 1963 Unfinished is not slow at all (surprising for Klemperer). It is beautifully structured, and the tuttis allow the winds to come through majestically. There are more sorrowful Unfinisheds, such as Bruno Walter's and Bernstein's (both with the N.Y. Philharmonic), but Klemperer's Schubert is not sorry for himself and is a master builder of a symphonist. This approach is even more clearly apparent in the Ninth. From the first note to the last, Klemperer has a bird's eye view of the work's structure, where nothing is hurried and yet nothing drags. He is particularly attentive to the smallest figurations in the winds in the first movement and the violins in the last. It is a subtler view of the symphony than one gets from either Szell recording, as marvellous as they are. In both works, the Philharmonia covers itself with glory. It's worth noting that Klemperer first recorded the Unfinished with the Berlin Staatskapelle in 1924. He may not have been so renowned as a Schubertian, but he certainly had a lot to say about Schubert. Five years after recording this Unfinshed, he gave a live performance of it with the Vienna Philharmonic that is much slower. EMI seems to have caught him just at the right time."