Klaus Tennstedt - The Great EMI Recordings [Box set]

The 5 star reviews of this set pretty well sum up its excellence, but there are a few points I feel that are still worth making.
Whenever a Tennstedt recording is being discussed, you can rest assured that early on will emerge the phrase "Well of course he was much better live!"
While this is true, it applies to virtually all conductors as is evidenced in recently released live recordings from the likes of Giulini and Karajan which show these conductors in scintillating form not often recaptured on their studio recordings. The problem with this statement in the case of Tennstedt is that it perpetuates the myth that his studio recordings were somehow letdowns-and this is not helped by EMI plastering a rather negative comment by a critic "whose name cannot be said or written" on the front of this marvellous set.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and I would go so far as to say that this collection of largely studio recordings does more justice to the true greatness of this artist than all his Mahler recordings, studio and live, put together, marvellous though they are!
The next statement that inevitably follows is that he famously said that the LPO was the greatest orchestra in the world! The LPO on a week in week out basis was and is palpably not even the greatest orchestra in London, but we understand that this was said in an emotional outburst and reflects Tennstedt's joy at working with the orchestra and is not to be taken literally-and yet, the LPO is not outshone by its more illustrious rivals on this set, quite the opposite in fact, such is the richness of sound that he elicits from them.
This set costs more or less the price of 2 cheap CD's. It contains only 2 really disappointing recordings-the Ring excerpts with the BPO sound like no-one was really interested, the orchestra, conductor and engineers and this is really a bit of an embarrassment. The Wagner Overtures disc by contrast is superb, reminding one of Klemperer's great recordings.
The Bruckner 4 is also very disappointing-ordinary at best, very pedestrian at its worst-it just never takes off. The Brahms Requiem just avoids toppling over into being sustained sound, not music, so drawn out are the tempi-BUT-it survives and is ultimately worth the effort.
I will highlight 2 recordings which alone are worth the cost of this set: Also Sprach Zarathustra is a revelation, in its conducting, playing and recording.
I had not heard it before, and I was frankly stunned. Tennstedt captures the great drama, the power, the playfulness and sweep of this piece at least as well as Karajan, Maazel (VPO) and the still superb sounding Previn VPO on Telarc. The LPO do not yield second place to Berlin or Vienna, the playing of (I presume) David Nolan in the solo violin part is exquisite, and the great tolling bell in the Nachtwanderlied made my floor shake on its first entry!
A 10 star recommendation.
More controversially, the other great recording I wish to highlight is the Bruckner 8, a recording not liked by many ardent Brucknerians and Tennstedt admirers. I am both these things-and I can assure you that it is superb, though it is different! He finds a different vein in this symphony, which starts and progresses with more drive and passion than usual and continues marvellously in that vein. This Bruckner is full of the erotic chromaticism of Wagner, though the divine Anton surely did not intend this to be the case.
However, it is present and Tennstedt unearths it marvellously giving us a whole new perspective on this colossus of the repertoire. Playing and recording are superb-again 10 stars.
All the rest is a bonus-and what a bonus. Every performance will delight and inspire, often recasting what we thought we knew about these great works.
Tennstedt-last of the Great Conductors? Well, Giulini outlived him, but he's in that select group to whom one could apply the term and make a good case.
This set is simply- a must. Unlimited Stars-Enjoy!! Stewart Crowe.

At this price, this bargain set of 14 CDs could be recommended as a superb introduction for the novice to some of the cornerstones of the Romantic classical canon, embracing as it does seminal Beethoven symphonies through Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak, Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler to Strauss. Obviously, these are all in the Austro-Germanic school at the core of Tennstedt's repertoire, although Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Kodaly also get a look in on these well-filled discs. The more seasoned collector will want them as a memento of one whom some would call the last great conductor - with all due respect to Abbado, Gergiev and Temirkanov.

Although occasionally patchy and inconsistent, Tennstedt's greatness is clearly revealed by these recordings; it helps that he is directing some of the finest orchestras of his or any day in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic and, of course, his beloved London Philharmonic Orchestra. It has often been said that Tennstedt was best live. Two symphonies here are live recordings; otherwise EMI has made a judicious selection from the studio recordings. For someone who had to be coaxed into the recording studio, Tennstedt was mighty busy for EMI in the mid 80's. I drew attention in my recent review of the similarly packaged and equally impressive Complete Mahler Symphonies EMI box set to what I might call his tectonic quality; whatever he is conducting is moulded and shaped in function of his overview of the music's structural integrity. Very often, one begins by thinking that Tennstedt has undercooked the tempo and tension a piece requires, only to be ultimately convinced, if not seduced, by the aptness of his pacing; Tennstedt delivers climactic release in his own time.

His beat is not in fact by any means extreme in the Celibadache fashion, although amongst the most daringly slow items here is the Brahms Requiem, which takes risks with etiolated tempi but stays this side of the stodginess that mars Rattle's account with the BPO. I think it's a grand interpretation, far preferable to Gardiner's perkiness and in the tradition of Klemperer, Previn and - my favourite versions - Karajan. As is so often the case with Tennstedt, the metronome will tell you that the speeds are abnormally slow yet he injects momentum and tension when required. A key point for me is "Aber des Herrn Wort" which takes off as it should and the contribution of the two soloists is superb: both Jorma Hynninen and Jessye Norman have big, V8 voices whose majesty and might suit Tennstedt's sepulchral conception. Brahms' First Symphony is played on a comparably large scale. It is not so much slower than my favourite interpretation, which is one of Karajan's later recordings, the live performance at the Royal Festival Hall in 1988 on the Testament label.

Ultimately, Tennstedt's conception of how music from the Central European tradition should be played is all of a piece: he favours a massive solidity, unfailingly beautiful orchestral tone and a constant sense of spiritual profundity. In this, he reminds me very much of Karajan. Just as that conductor has no shortage of detractors, Tennstedt may be criticised for the very features which are virtues to some and flaws to others. I am puzzled by reviewers elsewhere who first confirm Tennstedt's stature in the pantheon of Twentieth Century conductors then go on either flatly to excoriate or at least damn with faint praise the bulk of the recordings here. Just as Karajan's insistence upon rich tone from his orchestra was condemned as "superficial", "bland" and "smooth", Tennstedt's direction of the LPO and the Berlin Philharmonic may be dismissed as prizing "pure sound" above interpretative novelty; certainly, I was newly struck by the virtuosity of the playing here and its sheer beauty as sound.

Time and again when listening to these discs I found myself warming to Tennstedt's sincerity of utterance. Not everything here is in marmoreal vein: his "Also sprach Zarathustra" is thrilling and takes its place among my preferred versions alongside Karajan and Maazel, while the "Night on a Bald Mountain" is similarly electric. I have long known and loved the thrust and drive of his 1978 analogue recording of Schumann's mini-masterpiece the "Konzertstück" for four horns and orchestra.

You may alight on any of the big symphonies in this collection and find yourself swept along by Tennstedt's power and conviction, although I would particularly commend his energised versions of the two Schumann symphonies and the marvellously fluid and flexible performance of Dvorak's "New World". Bruckner's grand gestures also ideally suit this most Romantic of conductors. However, I can understand doubts about the live Mahler symphony. This extends some five or six minutes beyond the norm - although some of that is vociferous applause at the end. Tennstedt uses the extra time to underline a coarser, more menacing mood than he evoked in his more delicate 1978 recording, yet the climax of the fourth movement is heroic, giving full scope to the Chicago brass, and the audience reaction is appropriately enthusiastic. This account by no means bored me and I suspect its measured majesty will grow on me with time. The Beethoven symphonies, however, could be termed conventional in the same way that Gunter Wand's Beethoven can seem faceless to some and faithful to others. I find them to be direct and unfussy. The "Eroica" is a live recording from a 1991 performance in the Royal Festival Hall and presses all the right buttons. Both the "Pastoral" and the Eighth are studio recordings: the former is light, sprung and joyful, the latter weighty in traditional mode. Similarly, I find no fault with the overtures which seem to me to models of concentrated propulsion.

The "Tannhäuser" overture on the second Wagner disc of orchestral excerpts is especially thrilling and powerful; indeed that disc of overtures and preludes is markedly more exciting than the disc of orchestral excerpts from the "Ring". The playing in the latter is sometimes a tad stodgy, just as Tennstedt's accompaniments to Jessye Norman's Wagner recital album of the same era were uninspired and as such constitutes one of this set's few comparative failures, rather as the Mahler Nine on the comparable bargain Mahler box set failed to lift off. The Berlin Philharmonic is for once hardly on form: the strings in "Wotan's Farewell" are decidedly edgy, orchestral tone is often rather coarse and blatty, there are blips in the brass playing and ensemble occasionally goes awry. To compound the disappointment, whoever typeset or proofread the booklet text thinks Wagner wrote something called "Forest Murmers".

The recording quality on this set is not perhaps the finest; apart from two Schumann items in analogue sound most here are early digital and hence rather opaque, yet still too bright when the sound peaks, with too great a contrast between loud and soft. Nonetheless, the sound is very acceptable, if not on the same level even as the recent spate of bargain box sets in analogue sound from Sony/RCA which are exceptionally full and vivid.

We have the standard EMI bargain box packaging: cardboard sleeves and a booklet containing timing and location details plus a biographical article about the conductor.

Ralph Moore has written so much that there is very little to add, although I do not agree with everything he has said. It is fascinating to hear the "Tennstedt sound", which might almost be called the Mahler sound, brought to other great composers. His ability to make every voice in the orchestra clearly audible without any one of them dominating, is for me his sonic trademark.

The pick of the bunch is Mahler 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, so much more involving than his rather under-stated performance with the LPO; this also has the best recording quality. The two Bruckner symphonies come next, especially the Eighth, in which he brings out a lyricism and humanity which not all conductors find. The Brahms German Requiem is compelling despite very slow tempi in the first and last movements. The baritone Jorma Hynninen is very good, however Jessye Norman, a singer whom I admire, is not at her best here.

The Beethoven Third, Sixth and Eighth are first-class even if they do not erase memories of Klemperer in the Eroica and Boehm in the Pastoral. In fact there is very little that is not recommendable; I have to say I was not impressed by the "New World", which seems to lack its Czech quality, but maybe that is just me.