Carlos Kleiber recordings

[Pam Goodall]

From Mike Willis in Australia.

I agree about the sound of the Brahms Second on Artists - it's very poor and
is much inferior to the video tape of a live Brahms Second (on Philips, I
think). Most of the other Kleiber live recordings I have heard on Artists or
Exclusive are in pretty poor sound - such as the Otello, for example - which
however remains a superb, exciting performance.

Which brings me to two issues:

- whatever happened to a whole swag of Kleiber recordings which were -
apparently - available some years ago on a pirate label (they were mentioned
in The Gramophone or perhaps Classic CD.) There were about fifteen to twenty
but they mysteriously disappeared and a few magazines referred to the fact
that the recordings had been "withdrawn" which sounmds to me like legal
ramifications. I can't remember the name of the label but for some reason I
did think it was Exclusive. There were lots of them.

Second, a few years ago, Sony advertised a disk featuring the elusive
conductor directing the Strauss Ein Heldenleben coupled with a Mozart
symphony (for some reason I think it may have been number 33). The orchestra
was the Vienna PO. This too seems to have disappeared although a friend of
mine swears to have actually sighted it in a record store before it vanished
into the mists of long lost CDs.

All I can say is that Kleiber's freezer must never be empty these days. (He
was once reported to have said that he only conducted when the freezer was
getting low! - a comment made by Karajan, I think, in the book "Conversations
with Karajan", by Richard Osborne of Gramophone fame).

Mike Willis Wednesday

[JohnK54250]

Mike Willis in Oz wondered about Kleiber recordings.........he is right -
the label was Exclusive and these are still available from Berkshire Music
in the US.
I also have some airchecks of CK and the odd in-hall effort if anyone is
interested and is a real CK diehard.
There is a web page devoted to CK constructed by Toru Hirasawa which
offers a pretty comprehensive list of his recent concerts - it's short -
as HVK noted, CK hates to conduct. He likes to drive his Audi and
"entertain" attractive young women. Maybe we need to encourage such a lady
with really expensive taste to siphon off some of what remains of his bank
account so that he'll have to conduct again.
This guy really hides his light under the proverbial bushel - in many ways
he's the greatest conductor in the world and yet the stupidest in that he
denies the world his light and inspiration.
In terms of the Sony Heldenleben, it's in the can but he won't permit it's
release. What's new. I have a recording on DAT of the radio broadcast
which Sony took down and it is pretty good, but the solo violinist was not
100%. That's probably CK's problem.
So - any female volunteers with expensive taste who like riding around in
Audi's care to step up to the plate???? :)

[Brian MacGilvray]

JohnK54250 wrote:

> There is a web page devoted to CK constructed by Toru Hirasawa which
> offers a pretty comprehensive list of his recent concerts - it's short -
> as HVK noted, CK hates to conduct.

Could you provide the web address, please?
Thanks,

Brian MacGilvray

[Bruce Morrison]

Pam Goodall wrote:
>
> From Mike Willis in Australia.
>

> whatever happened to a whole swag of Kleiber recordings which were -
> apparently - available some years ago on a pirate label (they were mentioned
> in The Gramophone or perhaps Classic CD.) There were about fifteen to twenty
> but they mysteriously disappeared and a few magazines referred to the fact
> that the recordings had been "withdrawn" which sounmds to me like legal
> ramifications. I can't remember the name of the label but for some reason I
> did think it was Exclusive. There were lots of them.
>
> Second, a few years ago, Sony advertised a disk featuring the elusive
> conductor directing the Strauss Ein Heldenleben coupled with a Mozart
> symphony (for some reason I think it may have been number 33). The orchestra
> was the Vienna PO. This too seems to have disappeared although a friend of
> mine swears to have actually sighted it in a record store before it vanished
> into the mists of long lost CDs.
>

> Mike Willis Wednesday

The recordings you mention were indeed on an Italian label called Exclusive - they were around in London in early 1993 for a while, but they
were highly illegal and I did hear that Kleiber's agent was going round Tower Records actually pulling them off the shelves at one point!

They included a number of opera performances - Traviata, Otello, Carmen, La Boheme, two different Rosenkavaliers and two different Tristans.
Also a number of orchestral items and an early 70's Das Lied von der Erde. The sound quality is about what you'd expect for performances of
that vintage on unofficial Italian labels - not great but OK.

The Sony Heldenleben was announced but was apparently pulled at the last minute - I assumed for legal reasons, but I never heard the details.

Bruce

[Vorspiel1]

No such Kleiber recording on Sony ever made it to press.