“A selection of delightful Russian music, brilliantly conducted and beautifully played…” said the GRAMOPHONE on this album’s stereo release in July 1960. This atmospheric and superbly recorded album displays all Kletzki’s hallmark qualities: precision of ensemble, clarity of instrumental detail and warmth of orchestral sound and has long been a collector’s item.
Although Paul Kletzki (1900-73) is now remembered as primarily a conductor, it was as a composer that he first made his mark and in the 1920s and 1930s. He came to the attention of Toscanini and Furtwangler, the latter who permitted Kletzki to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1925 and championed his many compositions. His bitter personal experiences of the Second World War, however, in which he lost many of his family, appeared to destroy his creative spirit and he stopped composing in 1942. The rest of his career was devoted to conducting. He made several recordings for EMI in the Fifties and Sixties. His superb 1955 early stereo Sibelius 2nd Symphony is available on HIQLP026.
Recorded on 30 August, 3 & 4 September 1958 at the Kingsway Hall, London with legendary producers Victor Olof and Peter Andry (Capriccio Italien) and engineers Harold Davidson and Robert Gooch (Capriccio Italien).

Cut at Abbey Road Studios from the original stereo analogue master tapes with the Neumann VMS82 lathe fed an analogue pre-cut signal from a specially adapted Studer A80 tape deck with additional ‘advance’ playback head, making the cut a totally analogue process.

Pressed on 180g vinyl to audiophile standards using the original EMI presses by The Vinyl Factory in Hayes, England.

Featuring the original album artwork.

The original April 1960 review in GRAMOPHONE, DC seems a bit weary of the programme but noted that:

“Paul Kletzki has something of Beecham’s genius for giving new life to moribund musical showpieces, and he uses the same methods: nicely-judged tempo, beautifully-tailored melodic phrasing, firm rhythmic accents timed to a split second, and an emphasis on significant detail… The Philharmonia… is at its brilliant best… the recording is clear and well rounded…”