Even before he made his first Beethoven recordings with the Philharmonia – versions of the Symphonies Nos. 3, 5 and 7 which he never surpassed – Klemperer recorded the two Mozart symphonies on the first of these Testament discs. They were his earliest recordings with the Philharmonia for EMI in what developed as the crowning association of his whole career. As Alan Sanders explains in his highly informative notes, the response of the players to Klemperer’s first concert with the Philharmonia in 1951 at the newly opened Royal Festival Hall had led to Walter Legge pursuing the idea of making a contract with a conductor whose recording career till then had been erratic, plagued as he often was by ill luck.
This was the turning point, and the electricity of these performances is a confirmation, every bit as much as the classic Beethoven recordings which followed. If in the first movement of No. 29 Klemperer characteristically takes a spacious and weighty view, very much following a slow Beecham speed but with rugged results, the intensity carries one along, and the other three movements are not at all idiosyncratic, with an elegant slow movement and jaunty minuet followed by an urgent and vigorous finale. This is a tauter performance than Klemperer’s stereo remake of 1965 (listed above, only available as part of a four-disc set of the late Mozart symphonies), even if the approach is not radically different.
The real revelation is the 1954 mono version of the Jupiter Symphony, not only faster but markedly fresher and more biting than the later stereo of 1962, notably in the outer movements. Significantly, in this earlier performance Klemperer observes the exposition repeat in the finale, adding to the weight and power, and the Testament transfer is full, fresh and immediate, generally preferable to the EMI transfer of the stereo version. The disc is completed by an unusually powerful account of Eine kleine Nachtmusik in good early experimental stereo, making one appreciate this for once as late Mozart.
The other disc brings its revelations too, though perhaps not as strikingly, with this mono account of the Prague fresher as well as weightier than the later stereo, at rather faster speeds. In No. 39 Klemperer’s speeds barely alter between this mono version of 1956 and the stereo version of 1962, but the performance is a degree fresher, while the Serenata notturna brings a typical Klemperer contrast, with the orchestra providing rugged, foursquare support for the soloists, who by contrast are allowed their measure of charm and elegance.
The Kempe Mozart disc, also from Testament, and also very well transferred, offers previously unissued stereo recordings of Nos. 39 and 41 made in 1956, as well as a 1955 mono account of No. 34. If after Klemperer the results initially seem smooth and rather soft-grained, the conductor’s warmth and understanding quickly magnetize the ear, and one can only marvel that such performances were left unissued till now. My only reservation concerns the slowness of the minuets in Nos. 39 and 41. No. 34 did appear three years after it was recorded, coupled with Haydn’s No. 104, a delightful performance with an exhilarating account of the 6/8 finale.'