When I was a teenager, late 60s - early 70s, I saved my pocket money to acquire the Beethoven symphonies at my local record store (33 and 45 rpm !!). At that time, one was for sure the shelves that interpretations stereo Herbert von Karajan (Version 63) and Otto Klemperer. I finally "cracked" once I had enough to offer me the beautiful box full of Karajan in DG promo while consoling me waiting with three discs of orchestral anthology Wagner Klemperer EMI ... The beautiful version of Kurt Masur at Philips was available later. This personal anecdote is interesting to underline that the prominent place at this time could occupy the great leader facing the German maestro Austrian superstar boss "Berliners". Herbert von Karajan was not the first to record an integral (including himself before ... with the Philharmonia at EMI also supervised by Walter Legge) but he had received much more homogeneous market with the famous "subscriptions "and a comprehensive and stereo broadcast. The integral Klemperer itself had been a problem: Symphonies originally recorded in 1955 (Heroic, 5th and 7th symphonies) were single and had been captured in stereo again in 1959 and 1960. To make things worse, André Cluytens recorded meanwhile - EMI - an integral (available again cheap) with the "Berliners" ... Still, the comparison to listen to my store (with the more erudite and time available) proved exciting as major differences appeared between the "guardian" of the Germanic tradition and the "young" modern chef (summary a little short and biased elsewhere). The great merit of this 10-CD box is offering us all Beethoven orchestral performances of Otto Klemperer where the year 1957 is a fulcrum for the following years were devoted to re-recordings for the reasons explained above . This allows us to capture changes in the head (three times the 7th symphony where the tempo slows each time) but with constants: almost Gothic architecture very solid but each pillar division knows its strengths with expressive lighting magnified by the Klemperer and perfect understanding between musicians of the London Philharmonia and the New Philharmonia. The comparison between different versions of the openings - before and after 57 - is equally symbolic, head anyway avoiding the fluctuations that can be found in my opinion indisposantes Furtwängler. Anyway, Klemperer is a fine tradition in this directory, knowing that I am unconvinced by the "baroqueuses" editions in the register (Beethoven himself said that he composed music and looking to the future for instruments not yet existing in the living !!!). The different versions of Karajan (at least 63 to 77) and more recently by Günter Wand - late 80 early 90 - and Daniel Barenboim - 2000s - have taken over this corpus. Certainly a welcome and instructive edition (outstanding comments Osborne). However, the box set featuring symphonies by the time "romantic" seems even more essential (read my review on this) ...
