This box set comprises all the operas and sacred works Otto Klemperer conducted for EMI Columbia and HMV. Oratorios by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Handel are accompanied by operas of Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner. There are also rehearsals and listening playback sessions for the recording of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and a Bonus CD with recollections from artists who sang in Klemperer’s opera performances. Otto Klemperer deeply loved both the theatricality of opera and the spirituality of oratorios, and these performances from his great Indian Summer represent the fruits of his lifetime of thought and experience in this repertoire.

The German-born conductor Otto Klemperer, a towering figure in the musical history of the 20th century, died at the age of 88 on 8 July 1973, so 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of his death.

From 1951 to 1971 Klemperer was closely linked with London’s Philharmonia (later New Philharmonia) Orchestra. This period established him as the ‘grand old man’ of the Austro-German symphonic repertoire. Crucial to his global reputation during this period (and after his death) were the many recordings that he conducted for EMI between 1954 and 1971. A number of them are considered landmarks of the catalogue.

The 29-CD Complete Recordings of Operas & Sacred Works is the second of two boxes that together form Otto Klemperer: The Warner Classics Remastered Edition. The Edition assembles all the Klemperer recordings in the Warner Classics catalogue; they were originally made for EMI Columbia, HMV, Electrola and Parlophone.

All originate from Klemperer’s period with the Philharmonia/New Philharmonia Orchestra, from 1960 to 1971.

The recordings in this box have been newly remastered from original tapes in HD 192kHz/24-bit by Art et Son Studio, except CDs 10-11 & 19-20 which were remastered in HD 96kHz/24-bit in 2016 (Die Zauberflöte) & 2017 (Der fliegende Holländer) by Abbey Road Studios for the Legendary Opera Recordings high-profile-Series.

Most of these are landmark recordings, especially the Mozart’s Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, Bach’s Mass in B minor and St Matthew Passion, and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis.

There are 2 Bonus CDs in the box, both made by journalist and expert Jon Tolansky:

- The first includes rehearsals and listening playback sessions for the recording of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Although most of this recording was first published as a bonus CD in EMI Classics’ remastering of the opera in 2013, there is a large extra portion of rehearsal that is appearing here for the first time.

- The second Bonus CD includes recollections from artists who sang in Klemperer’s opera performances: tenors John Dobson and Nicolai Gedda, baritone Victor Godfrey; and Siva Oke, who was Assistant Producer in EMI’s Classical Division, and Anthony Tunstall, principal horn in the Royal Opera House Orchestra. All the interviews in this documentary were recorded by Jon Tolansky in London and date  from between 1996 and 2022. The interview with Siva Oke is appearing here for the first time.

The American author Joseph Horowitz has written that: “Klemperer’s most characteristic performances, rigorously projecting outward design, amassed a magisterial poise and weight.”

Shortly after Klemperer’s death, the New York Times reported that: “Mr. Klemperer, at the head of his Philharmonia Orchestra, was known as a rock of integrity and moral authority in his conducting. His measured tempos and inspired literalness, his iron insistence on correct performance, brought new meanings to his readings of Beethoven, Mahler and others … His conducting was marked by a strict observance of the text. He was never interested in obvious or flashy effects, and was always in complete command of the orchestra, He had a wonderful sense of orchestral balance, and tried with all his power to communicate the central essence of the music.”

Walter Legge, writing in Gramophone in 1974, stated that: “Klemperer’s main preoccupations were with form and with clarity of musical structure … He had little interest in sensuous beauty of sound … Musicianship, rhythm, solidity of sound, steady tempi, accuracy of note-values and clarity of texture were all he asked …. He was all intellectual power and granite will.”

Legge had first experienced Klemperer’s conducting, in 1926 at the opera house in Wiesbaden; he wrote that: “His performances of Fidelio and Don Giovanni were revelations.” (Klemperer’s 1960s EMI recordings of both operas are included in this box.)

Otto Klemperer was born to Jewish parents in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) in 1885.

He grew up in Hamburg and studied at conservatories in Frankfurt and Berlin, where he took lessons in conducting and composition with Hans Pfitzner. He made his professional debut in 1906, conducting Max Reinhardt’s Berlin production of Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers.

He impressed Mahler during encounters in both Berlin and Vienna and this led the Austrian composer to recommend him for conducting posts at opera houses in Prague (1907) and subsequently in Hamburg (1910).

Between 1913 and 1927 Klemperer held conducting appointments in Bremen, Strasbourg and Cologne, where he led first performances of works by such composers as Korngold, Schreker and Zemlinsky and the first German performance of of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová. In the 1920s and early 1930s his guest engagements took him to Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Moscow, Leningrad, London, New York and Buenos Aires.

Of lasting significance were his four years (1927-31) in charge of Berlin’s newly established Kroll Opera, a progressive theatre which promoted contemporary works by such composers as Hindemith, Janáček, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Weill. The Kroll Opera closed in 1931 and Klemperer then conducted at the Berlin Staatsoper until 1933, the year Hitler came to power.

After periods based in Vienna and Switzerland, Klemperer settled in Los Angeles, where he had been appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he held till 1939.

After World War II, Klemperer returned to Europe, guest-conducting around the continent and spending three years as chief conductor at the Budapest Opera (1947-50).

In 1951 the ‘Philharmonia era’ of Klemperer’s career was inaugurated with two concerts in London for the Festival of Britain. In 1959 he was appointed the Philharmonia’s Conductor for Life. Acknowledged as one of the great musical figures of his time, he also led performances at London’s Royal Opera House (Fidelio, Die Zauberflöte, Lohengrin) and appeared as a guest conductor with leading orchestras in such musical centres as Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Amsterdam and, in the 1950s, in many other cities around Europe.

Klemperer died in Zurich on 8 July 1973.