Symphony No.5 in C minor / Symphony No.6 in F major, Pastoral (recorded 1956)

"The Fifth is fiery and lucid...Nothing is taken for granted, and that freshness is even more apparent in the Sixth, which moves briskly, but with extraordinarily sweet-toned strings...one might think this was a performance given recently by a major conductor one had overlooked." (BBC Music Magazine)

"The Pastoral gains greatly from Kleiber's no-nonsense approach: this is an affectionate performance but also one that mostly refuses to dawdle. The slow movement is kept flowing and the surprise is Kleiber's quite spacious view of the finale."
(International Record Review July/Aug 2007)

"Kleiber was a Beethoven conductor of major importance. He was one of the few such who left no complete cycle - 1, 4 and 8 are missing. Admirers of this conductor will regret that the Cologne archives didn't actually produce anything new to his discography, but they will find plenty to interest them here, especially in the "Pastoral". Those interested in Beethoven interpretation generally should take especial note of his treatment of the finales."
(MusicWeb July 2007)

Erich Kleiber (1890-1956) was born in Vienna and studied at the Prague Conservatory. His first major appointment was General Music Director at the Berlin State Opera in 1923 where he remained until 1934 and was considered one of the most memorable epochs in German musical performance. Due to interference by the Nazis, Kleiber (who was not Jewish) resigned his post in 1934 and left Germany in 1935. After this, he conducted in London, Prague, Brussels, Buenos Aries, Amsterdam and Salzburg before taking up residence in Argentina in 1939. In 1948 he returned to Europe and became conductor of the Berlin State Opera in East Berlin which he resigned from in 1955 due to the poor conditions. From 1952 he was a very much sought after guest conductor in London, Vienna and particularly in Cologne and Stuttgart. His Vienna Philharmonic and Concertgebouw recordings with Decca from 1948 to 1956 were major highlights of their catalogue.

Erich Kleiber was without question a great conductor, especially with Mozart and Beethoven. His studio recordings of the latter were considered even today to be the equal of those by Weingartner/Vienna Philharmonic, Toscanini/NBC and Klemperer/Philharmonia.

These live recordings from 1955 of Beethoven Symphonies Nos 5 & 6 in Cologne have been pirated before but in very poor sound. Here they have been transferred from the ORIGINAL MASTER TAPE as have all the WDR sourced recordings. These are the first authorised releases.

In his book Conductors on Record, John L. Holmes says of Kleiber "many have argued that his performance of Beethoven Symphony No.5 was the greatest recording ever made of that much recorded work, maybe until that of his son, Carlos Kleiber, was issued in 1975."

The live studio recording made by the WDR is state of the art and one of the best sounding recordings of the period.

The entire Erich Kleiber symphonic archive recorded by the WDR will be issued on Medici Masters.