Hi does anyone have this box set or any information on the mastering process for this 16 SACD box set? It’s quite Interesting to me, but I don’t want to get it if it’s just them playing the LPs and running through a hiss and pop filter. I can’t find anything.
Check this out from Dave Hurwitz
Here we have, courtesy of Archiphon, Otto Klemperer’s live Amsterdam Concertgebouw recordings from 1947-61, carefully remastered and issued at full price with a deluxe book. They still sound mediocre at best (all are live mono dubs), and there is very little repertoire here that we cannot hear on his equally fine (if not better) studio recordings in vastly superior sound. I don’t think anyone needs this, but fans of the artist, as opposed to the music, will of course disagree. More power to them.
Wow he didn’t mince words in the video! Thanks for sending it this way.
Hurwitz can be a poisonous, self-anointed bigot. The more you read of his writing, or the more you watch his videos, the more you see that anything not fitting his ideal is pretty much worthless. He’s the typical modern social media poster; the things he says in his reviews he’d never say to the person’s face. Cowardice and a lack of grace unbefitting the art he deigns to pass judgement over. Best left alone.
Interestingly, Klemperer was never a conductor who thought recording sessions were even equal to concerts, let alone an environment that could produce any kind of “definitive” performance or interpretation. The live event and its mysteries and spontaneity were much more important. An attitude constantly reinforced by his late daughter. For Hurwitz to dismiss the live performances so abruptly in favour of the studio versions demonstrates quite the disconnect.
Rant over.
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I was hoping for Verner Klemperer instead. Sorry for the snarky comment just couldn’t resist!
What a complete opinionated tosser.
Maybe Klemperer’s studio recordings with the Philharmonia in London are more engaging because he had such a close relationship with the orchestra and the times. They were a newly formed orchestra in post-war austerity, and were highlights of the Festival of Britain in 1951 at the new Festival Hall, which was intended to signal rebirth of the nation. What does this guy know sitting in his basement in god knows where? The Concertgebouw, on the other had, is a completely different animal, old school, I think he was far more a guest conductor, and the recordings may well have been made for Dutch radio live broadcast. He seems to complete dismiss the role of interpretation. What a bore this man is.
Personally, live performance lives in the memory, not on recordings.
the CDs must be better than this guy says
perhaps try this on Qobuz, Otto Klemperer conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra
yes 
Note also to the folks who spend an entire concert trying to film it and photograph it instead of enjoying it.
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