BRAHMS Symphony No.1, WAGNER / Otto Klemperer

Johannes BRAHMS
Symphony No. 1 In C Minor, Op. 68

1 Un Poco Sostenato: Allegro 13:00
2 Andante Sostenato 9:50
3 Un Poco Allegretto E Grazioso 4:20
4 Adagio: Allegro Non Troppo Ma Con Brio 14:50

5 Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 8:54

Richard WAGNER
6 Tristan Und Isolde – Prelude To Act 1 (1859 Version) 10:59
7 Siegfried Idyll 18:36

Berlin State Opera Orchestra

Conductor – Otto Klemperer (1895-1973)

Recordings 1927-28

Label: Naxos Historical – 8.111274
Barcode: 747313327423
Series: Great Conductors
Format: CD, Album, Compilation, Reissue, Remastered
Country: Germany
Released: 2008
Genre: Classical
Style: Romantic

If ‘slow tempos’ were a significant characteristic of Klemperer’s final years as a conductor, in his earlier days, as demonstrated on these 1927-28 recordings, he could set fizzing tempos, galvanising his performers with electric gestures. Above all, however, Klemperer was a master structuralist, always focussed on the music, its construction and direction. His recording of the Brahms Symphony No. 1, made over seven months, is notable not only for athletic vitality but for ecstatic singing lines and subtle integration of light and shade. The account of the Prelude to Act I of Tristan und Isolde is remarkably rapt while that of Siegfried Idyll is intimate and gentle.