Description
Carlos Kleiber disliked recordings he once said that every unproduced record is a good record but those he made have naturally come to occupy a special place in recording history. Deutsche Grammophon had the good fortune to be the label with which this most charismatic of conductors was associated. Imbued with Kleibers characteristics of intellectual rigour, passion and perfectionism, the few recordings he did make are among the greatest treasures of the DG catalogue. In 2011, 100 members of his own profession voted Carlos Kleiber the greatest conductor of all time, but he also remains the personification of the genius recluse Herbert von Karajan used to joke that Kleiber would only conduct when his fridge was empty.
Tracklist
CD1 BEETHOVEN: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7
Wiener Philharmoniker
Mercurial, thrilling accounts of two warhorses from the unique Carlos Kleiber. GRAMOPHONE
CD2 BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4
Wiener Philharmoniker
Brahms’s Fourth Symphony, full of detail and with an extraordinary sense of architectural logic, has not been surpassed since. THE GUARDIAN (UK)
CD3 SCHUBERT: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 8 Unfinished
Wiener Philharmoniker
Schuberts “Unfinished” with the Vienna Philharmonic is testimony enough to [Kleibers] genius [a] benchmark performance: it has never sounded more perfectly complete. INDEPENDENT (UK)
CDs4/5 J. STRAUSS: Die Fledermaus
Bavarian State Orchestra
Better than any other production it is impossible not to love. DIAPASON (FRANCE)
CD4 VERDI: La Traviata
Bavarian State Orchestra
This set’s probably still difficult to beat when it comes to studio recordings in (good) stereo sound, and it’s a ‘classic’ in its own right. GRAMOPHONE
It’s hard to imagine a much better “Traviata”, let alone a better-conducted one. INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW
CDs8/10 WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde
Staatskapelle Dresden
No subsequent recording, and there have been quite a few, equals this BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
CDs11/12 WEBER: Der Freischtz – Act 2, Scene 4 – 6 & Act 3
Staatskapelle Dresden
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