Klemperer Conducts...

"Yehudi Menuhin (violin), New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer"

"BEETHOVEN, L.: Violin Concerto "

"Although neither man lived in the country at the time, there could be little doubt that Otto Klemperer and Yehudi Menuhin were regarded in the mid 1960s as the UK's leading 'resident' Beethoven performers. This collaboration in 1966 at London's Royal Festival Hall was much anticipated. Klemperer's association with the Symphonie fantastique may have begun in Berlin in 1928 when, newly chosen as the Kroll Opera's first music director, he was searching for more radical concert repertoire. The Guardian's 1966 concert review summed up Klemperer's approach to the Fantastique in relation to the contemporary critical attitude to the work – 'he pays Berlioz the very just compliment of treating him as a real symphonist and not merely as an atmospheric colorist'. But this is not the pure 'classical' interpretation of the score as it's often portrayed; rather is it a document of the fascination of one conductor (and a composer and an experienced leader of opera to boot) with radical music."

Price: $31.98