Famous conductors of the past - Paul Kletzki

Album review

Mahler used to say he was thrice homeless -- as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world -- but Paul Kletzki could top him easily -- as a native of Poland in Germany, then Italy, then Russia, then Switzerland, then Israel, then England, and as a Jew throughout the world. So perhaps it's no coincidence that Kletzki was a superb Mahler conductor. Older listeners may recall his appealing 1957 Fourth with the Vienna Philharmonic and his heartrending 1959 Das Lied von der Erde with the Philharmonia and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Murray Dickie -- the first studio recording of the work using a baritone instead of an alto. Even older listeners may recall this 1954 First with the Israel Philharmonic. Kletzki's Mahler is neither the hyperbolic hysteric or the morbid melancholic of later conductors, but rather a robust romantic. With the scrappy but sincere playing of the Israel Philharmonic, Kletzki's Mahler's First is energetic and exciting in the opening movement's development and just a little bit sentimental in the second movement's Trio and in the closing movement's big string tune. Coupled with a vigorous performance of Schumann's First recorded by the same forces in the same year, this disc will delight fans of the conductor and the composer, despite the inevitably and understandably antique monaural sound.
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