"With Klemperer there is no seeking after superficially dramatic effect (…). The message is here left for us to divine: objectivity and architecture are all" (Alan Blyth, The Times).

Completely remastered and for the first time on sale: The BBC-Recordings of Otto Klemperer conducting the nine symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven for his 200th anniversary in 1970, Royal Albert Hall, London. With Teresa Zylis-Gara, Janet Baker, George Shirley, Theo Adam, New Philharmonia Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra.



5 Blu-ray-Discs plus 128-page richly illustrated book in English and German with two articles especially written for this publication as well as Klemperer’s own ON BEETHOVEN which he contributed to the complete 1961 EMI LP set of his Beethoven Symphonies with the Philharmonia Orchestra.



In THE SPELL OF OTTO KLEMPER Jon Tolansky offers a riveting insider’s view of what it meant for the members of the New Philharmonia Orchestra to play under Klemperer, their principal conductor between 1954 and 1971. What emerges is a fascinating picture of a unique conductor-orchestra relationship.



The second article, ‘I DOUBT I’LL EVER BE DONE.’ KLEMPERER AND BEETHOVEN, traces the itinerary of Klemperer’s career as it reflects his way with performing ‘Beethoven the revolutionary’. Klemperer himself set little store by expressing his thoughts in writing. One is therefore left with ‘circumstantial evidence’ and the obvious prohibition on drawing firm conclusions. That the man and his music making are inseparable seems incontestable; but what then of the bi-polar disorder he suffered from all of his adult life and the extraordinary nature of his recreative powers?



Few British musicians were as close to Klemperer as Gareth Morris, the orchestra’s principal flutist. In OTTO KLEMPERER. A PERSONAL MEMOIR Morris talks revealingly to Jon Tolansky about the utterly compelling human being Klemperer was both on and away from the platform.