Those who are familiar with Klemperer's post-war Vox LPs and live post-war recordings issued by Decca and Hungaroton, will know that this conductor's familiarly deliberate, massive style only developed at about the time he made his first Columbia records in 1954. Before then he was a very different artist, as we can hear in a fast, urgent performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 25 on Archiphon's new disc.
This impressive document is followed by an account of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony which makes a strong contrast with Klemperer's three later Columbia versions. Even in just the four years which separate the Concertgebouw reading from the first 1955 Philharmonia issue (4/92) there are marked differences. In the Dutch performance the introduction is much faster and livelier, and the rest of the first movement has a slightly quicker pulse, too. The Allegretto is taken at about the same speed, but the scherzo is much livelier, even though the trio section is very slow. By normal standards the finale is taken at a steady tempo, and there are some slight, but noticeable tempo fluctuations which Klemperer would certainly have eschewed in later years. As a whole the performance is very strong, forthright and of high quality. It is a valuable record of Klemperer's early post-war style.
Herman Schey was 53 years old when he sang the Mahler song-cycle, and his voice and technique do sound a little tired. Nor is there any particular interpretative interest in his singing. Klemperer is, in fact, the guiding light of this performance and his conducting is full of character and insight. There are some surface distractions throughout the disc, particularly in the Mahler, since all three recordings were preserved in acetate form. However, the sound is remarkably full and vivid for its period.'