Joseph Keilberth: Icon

22 cd's of glorious playing and artistry from Keilberth. Most of the recordings are stereo and only a very few early stereos fall short of good sonic reproduction. I have not gone through all the cd's yet but so far the highlights of Keilberth's recordings are the Mozart Symphonies. These are played in a very delicate ,sensitive manner. I was very surprised how classical and modern they sounded. They could easily stand up to other similar comparisons such as Bohm or Colin Davies. The Dvorak Slavonic Dances also impressed me. Not as exciting as Szell or Kubelik but still the swagger and fast tempos did give me a sense of excitement . The same can be said for the Johann Strauss II disc. So far the best buy of the year recommended.

This set ought to be five stars, because this is music making of the highest quality, much of which has passed under our radar. Keilberth was an extremely able conductor, who transcends the rather uniform blandness and efficiency of some of his contemporaries. For a taste of how good he can be one might sample the Dvorak Slavonic Dances, which are wonderfully characterised. The problem is that some of the material has had to be transferred from scratch. This is a good thing, of course, but not when the company doing it is incompetent. These are terrible transfers. One of the worst victims is the historically crucial stereo recording of Schubert VI, dated 1954, and so one of the earliest stereo recordings. It's fine when the music's loud, but as soon as it gets quiet you hear the annoying effects of denoising or whatever process has been so heavily applied. It's hard to comprehend how the French company could make such a mess or be allowed to get away with it. But so it is. Other recent Warner releases have set high standards for new digital mastering, so it's baffling that this has gone so badly wrong. Only four or so discs are affected. The rest are fine, so this is still a bargain, but some of the really interesting stuff has been spoilt and is, to my ears at least, unlistenable to.

This is perhaps the finest set of recordings in the EMI/Warner "Icons" series. Just one listen to Keilberth and a vintage Berlin Philharmonic delivering a granite-hewn Bruckner Sixth of epic proportions is more than enough to convince any listener that Keilberth was indeed one of the GREAT conductors. His Beethoven is truly magnificent - and I mean magnificent! And the early stereo recording of Schubert's Sixth Symphony is very fine indeed. The previous reviewer is exaggerating the imagined deleterious effects of what he refers to as "denoising"... it's a1954 recording, for heaven's sake and the performance is truly outstanding - absolutely superb. And the same goes for just about every recording in this box-set. Keilberth serves the music well, and this set of recordings ought to prove both educational and revelatory.

Telefunken was a German electronics company founded in 1903.It’s music subsidiary was the third largest German record label after Electrola (German EMI) and Deutsche Grammophon (Polygram).In 1950, Telefunken signed a cooperative agreement with the British label Decca (creating Teldec), an arrangement that ended in 1987 when Warner acquired the Telefunken catalog.Telefunken’s roster of talent in the LP era lacked the glamorous names signed by EMI and DG.Instead Telefunken made do with less famous conductors like Joseph Keilberth.[the label did nurture one future celebrity conductor: the youthful Nikolaus Harnoncourt.]Telefunken also recorded provincial orchestras like the Bamberg Symphony and the Hamburg State Philharmonic- the major exception being five LPs recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1951 (Brahms First Symphony) and 1959-63.Decca issued Telefunken recordings in the UK on their budget label Ace of Clubs (Richmond in the US).Budget labels were a new thing in the 1950s, viewed with suspicion by musical snobs, which might explain why Keilberth was undervalued by English-speaking critics.Keilberth did not have a significant career outside Germany, but he was a frequent conductor at Bayreuth, and a welcome guest with the Berlin Philharmonic.But Warner’s suggestion that he was “the true successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler” is just silly (try Eugen Jochum or the elderly Celibidache).In 1955 Decca engineers recorded the first stereo ‘Ring’ at Bayreuth with Keilberth conducting, but it was not issued until fifty years later.Had it been issued at the time, Keilberth’s career might have taken a different course.[Solti’s stereo Ring, the first on LP, was completed in 1965.]Unfortunately for Joseph Keilberth’s reputation, his first big break came in 1940 when German occupiers appointed him music director of the German Philharmonic of Prague, a Nazi-created rival to the Czech Philharmonic.After Germany's defeat, most ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia were expelled across the border.Bamberg was the nearest German city.In 1946, the Deutsches Philharmonisches Orchester Prag was re-formed as the Bamberg Symphony.Joseph Keilberth served as principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony until his death in 1968 (and of the Hamburg Philharmonic from 1951-59).Today the Bamberg Symphony (conducted by Jonathan Nott) and Hamburg Philharmonic (Kent Nagano) are world-class ensembles, but in the ‘50s and ‘60s performing standards were more variable (the Bamberg winds & brass make some strange sounds in Brahms Third Symphony).For more about the Bamberg Symphony, see  Bamberg Symphony-The First 70 Years [17 CD Box Set ] (photos below)Telefunken began recording in stereo in 1954 (well before Electrola and Deutsche Grammophon). The following recordings are in stereo unless otherwise indicated:BEETHOVEN-- Symphony No.1: Bamberg (1958)-- Symphony No.2: Bamberg (1958)-- Symphony No.3: Hamburg (1956)-- Symphony No.4: Hamburg (1958)-- Symphony No.5: Hamburg (1958)-- Symphony No.6: Bamberg (1960)-- Symphony No.7: Berlin Philharmonic (1959)-- Symphony No.8: Hamburg (1958) mono-- Coriolan Overture: Bamberg (1960)-- Egmont Overture: Berlin Philharmonic (1960)-- Fidelio Overture: Bamberg (1960)-- Leonore Overture No.3: Berlin Philharmonic (1960)-- Die Ruinen von Athen: Overture & Marcia alla Turca: Hamburg (1960)BRAHMS-- Symphony No.1: Berlin Philharmonic (1951) mono-- Symphony No.2: Berlin Philharmonic (1962)-- Symphony No.3: Bamberg (1963)-- Symphony No.4: Hamburg (1960)-- Academic Festival Overture: Bamberg (1952) mono-- Tragic Overture: Bamberg (1957)-- Hungarian Dances No.1,3,10: Bamberg (1963)BRUCKNER-- Symphony No.6: Berlin Philharmonic (1963)-- Symphony No.9: Hamburg (1956)DVORAK-- Symphony No.9 “From the New World” Bamberg (1961)-- Carnival Overture: Bamberg (1961)-- Slavonic Dances, Op.46 & Op.72: Bamberg (1956)-- Cello Concerto with Ludwig Hoelscher: Hamburg (1958)GRIEG-- Peer Gynt Suites No.1 & 2: Hamburg (1956) monoHAYDN-- Symphony No.85 "La Reine" Bamberg (1957)-- Symphony No.101 "Clock” Bamberg (1957)HINDEMITH-- Nobilissima Visione: Hamburg (1955) mono-- Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber: Hamburg (1955) monoMENDELSSOHN-- Die Hebriden Overture: Berlin Philharmonic (1962)-- Meeresstille und gluckliche Fahrt Overture: Berlin Philharmonic (1962)MOZART-- Symphony No.28: Bamberg (1962)-- Symphony No.30: Bamberg (1953) mono-- Symphony No.35 "Haffner” Bamberg (1963)-- Symphony No.36 "Linz" Bamberg (1963)-- Symphony No.38 "Prague" Bamberg (1955)-- Symphony No.39: Bamberg (1955)-- Symphony No.40: Bamberg (1959)-- Symphony No.41 "Jupiter” Bamberg (1959)-- Divertimento No.1, K.113: Bamberg (1959)-- Divertimento No.2, K.131: Bamberg (1962)-- Serenade K.239 "Serenata notturna" Bamberg (1959)-- Serenade K.286 "Notturno" K.286/269a: Bamberg (1959)-- Serenade K.525 “Eine kleine Nachtmusik’ Bamberg (1959)-- German Dances K.509: Bamberg (1959)-- Minuets K.463/448c: Bamberg (1959)-- Der Schauspieldirektor Overture: Bamberg (1959)-- Die Zauberflote Overture: Bamberg (1952) monoREGER-- Eine Ballett-Suite: Bamberg (1962)-- Variations & Fugue on a theme of Hiller: Hamburg (1955)-- Variations & Fugue on a theme of Mozart: Bamberg (1962)SCHUBERT-- Symphony No.6: Bamberg (1954) experimental stereo-- Symphony No.8 "Unfinished" Bamberg (1960)SCHUMANN-- Symphony No.1 "Spring" Bamberg (1953) monoSMETANA-- Ma Vlast;------ Vltava (Moldau): Bamberg (1961)------ From Bohemian Fields and Groves: Bamberg (1961)J. STRAUSS-- Waltzes: Bamberg (1957-59)Accelerationen / An der schonen blauen Donau / Kaiser-Walzer/ Kunstlerleben / Leichtes Blut / Morgenblatter / Rosen aus dem Suden / Wein, Weib und Gesang / Wiener Blut-- Marches, Polkas etc: Bamberg (1959)Ägyptischer Marsch / Persischer-Marsch / Annen-Polka / Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka / Perpetuum MobileR. STRAUSS-- Don Juan: Berlin Philharmonic (1961)-- Till Eulenspiegel: Berlin Philharmonic (1961)-- ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ Waltz Scenes: Bavarian Staatsorchester* (1963)-- ‘Die schweigsame Frau’ Potpourri: Bavarian Staatsorchester* (1963)-- ‘Intermezzo’ Symphonic Interludes: Bavarian Staatsorchester* (1963)-- ‘Salome’ Dance of the Seven Veils: Bavarian Staatsorchester* (1963)WAGNER-- ‘Lohengrin’ Preludes to Acts 1 & 3: Hamburg (1957)-- ‘Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg’ Preludes to Acts 1 & 3: Hamburg (1957)WEBER-- ‘Euryanthe’ Overture: Bamberg (1953) mono-- ‘Der Freischutz’ Overture: Bamberg (1953) mono* R.Strauss: the Bavarian Staatsorchester is the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera. Keilberth was music director 1959-68.PACKAGING and SOUND:22 CDs in cardboard jackets with identical design on the front, and a 28 page booklet in three languages.I was surprised to discover that Telefunken was making stereo recordings as early as February 4-5, 1954 (Schubert's Sixth Symphony).This was two weeks before RCA recorded Berlioz 'Damnation of Faust' in Boston with Charles Munch (but only the final five minutes survive; the rest was "lost").The British branch of EMI started serious stereo recording in 1956, but their German branch was still using mono equipment for Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic in April 1957 (Schumann Symphony 4).In all candor Telefunken’s 1954 stereo is pretty raw.RCA’s 1954 stereo is far more realistic (available on SACD).Warner is vague about remasterings:“The premiere STEREO release of Schubert's Sixth Symphony and all debut digital releases [ten percent of the contents] have been remastered by Art & Son Studio, Annecy, in 24-bit/96kHz using original tapes.”No mention of the other ninety percent.Thirty years ago I purchased seven German-made Teldec CDs of Keilberth.The new CDs sound pretty much the sameAdditional Keilberth CDs were produced by Warner Japan, but I haven't heard them.With the exception of the 1951 Berlin Philharmonic Brahms First, the mono recordings are not very good.The 1954 stereo Schubert Sixth is also pretty raw, but interesting as an experiment.Things improve after that.One observation: In the 1950s, the Hamburg State Philharmonic was a better orchestra than the Bamberg Symphony.The Berlin Philharmonic was of course better than either.In addition to the Berlin Philharmonic recordings, the 1963 disc of Richard Strauss orchestral music from his operas, recorded with the Bavarian Staatsorchester, struck me as the highlight of this set.Also the best recorded.Trivia: Telefunken made this recording in the Bürgerbräukeller.“Bürgerbräukeller” sounds like a friendly restaurant specializing in burgers 'n brew, but it had a dark history.The Bürgerbräukeller was a large Munich beer hall built in 1885 and demolished in 1979.Infamous as the location from which Adolf Hitler launched the “Beer Hall Putsch” in November 1923.