Klemperer in Bruckner

As a teenager, I treasured a recording of Bruckner's 9th symphony (Horenstein) and Mahler's 4th (Kletzki) – both somewhat exotic repertoire in the 1950s. Mahler has faded considerably in my esteem, whereas Bruckner has kept on growing. There is a nobility and sincerity in Bruckner's music that comes over powerfully in good performances.

Judging by current performances, however, it would seem that Bruckner's music is difficult to conduct. If it is not to become a series of linked episodes, it needs a conductor with an iron sense of architecture and a refusal to become side-tracked or to wander off down by-ways. Delving back into my recent 10-CD box of Otto Klemperer's public performances from the 1950s, I was much taken with Bruckner's 4th symphony from 1954 (Cologne Radio Orchestra). A variable conductor, Klemperer is here heard at his best; interestingly, he takes nearly six minutes less over the symphony here than with his Philharmonia studio recording in 1963. Cologne is better.

The secret of conducting Bruckner seems to have withered after the passing of the great German repertoire conductors of the period 1920-60: Furtwängler, Klemperer, Böhm, Mengelberg, Knappertsbusch and a few others. My already high opinion of Otto Klemperer has risen a few more notches after listening to this Bruckner 4th; thank goodness the various radio studios in Europe have faithfully preserved so many tapes of major artists caught on the wing – which is usually better than in the often sterile environment of the recording studio. And the 1954 mono recording can be listened to with few allowances for imperfect sound.