Recording Review: The Living Colossus

Otto Klemperer conducts Don Giovanni.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Old school Otto Klemperer made batons and bow ties look cool.
Photo © EMI Classics.

This classic 1966 recording of Mozart's Don Giovanni has recently returned to the catalogue as a budget stand-alone or as part of the EMI Otto Klemperer Edition, a series of budget boxed sets reissuing classic recordings by this brilliant (and today, somewhat forgotten) conductor. Klemperer's measured, meticulous approach to Mozart may seem dated (and tortoise-slow) compared to today's "historically informed" conductors. This performance delivers precise, powerful conducting, perfectly suited to the light and shade of this opera, and the slow tempi add greater weight to the big moments.