This box set comprises all the operas and sacred works Otto Klemperer conducted for EMI Columbia and HMV. Oratorios by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Handel are accompanied by operas of Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner. There are also rehearsals and listening playback sessions for the recording of Mozart's Don Giovanni and a Bonus CD with recollections from artists who sang in Klemperer's opera performances. Otto Klemperer deeply loved both the theatricality of opera and the spirituality of oratorios, and these performances from his great Indian Summer represent the fruits of his lifetime of thought and experience in this repertoire.

Of Georg Solti’s two recordings of the Verdi Requiem, I slightly prefer this later one, though I realize that this isn’t received wisdom. The Decca recording, after all, features Sutherland, Horne, Pavarotti, and Talvela as soloists, and while Sutherland arguably is not the right voice for the part, everyone else is very good indeed. On the other hand, Leontyne Price, even toward the end of her career, certainly does have the right voice, as does Veriano Luchetti, while Baker and Van Dam are very intelligent singers by any measure, and they do a good job here. Besides, it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow at the generic complaint that “singer X lacks a true Italianate timbre” when the words being sung are in Latin and the drama (such as it is) occurs entirely within a devotional framework. The music certainly can take many different approaches, particularly when there’s so little actual agreement on what a “true Italianate timbre” is.

Also compared to the Decca recording, Solti here has the finer chorus, a better orchestra (for this work at least), and strangely enough, better (meaning less gimmicky) sound. Solti’s interpretation remains consistent, exciting, and direct, with a particularly thrilling account of the brief Sanctus and a Dies Irae chorus that is as violent as anyone could want without ever turning merely brutal or hysterical. A work as rich as this one always excites a wide range of opinions, and personal preferences tend to vary substantially. My personal favorite, all things considered, is the first Muti on EMI, with Scotto, Baltsa, Luchetti, Nesterenko, and the Philharmonia Orchestra; but either of Solti’s recordings are definitely among the select few. [12/17/2004]

– Classics Today (David Hurwitz)

Evgeny Svetlanov's was a masterly conductor of of Russian and non-Russian composers of the late-Romantic era. The Brahms is both powerful and mellifluous, superbly played by the LSO. The Debussy has tension from the start, combining colour, sensitivity and transparency. The bonus consists of Janet Baker singing the final song from Chausson's Poeme de l'amour et de la mer. The Brahms and Debussy are previously issued. Recorded at Royal Festival London, 1975.

The 46 songs that make up Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch show the composer at his most captivatingly individual; and history has proven that only singers of the utmost artistry can do them justice. Dame Janet Baker and John Shirley-Quirk are such singers, taking the listener from the depths of pathos through frissons of ecstasy with searching perception. Together with pianist Stuart Bedford, who also devised a new sequence for the songs, the singers performed the set at the 1977 Aldeburgh Festival, where the warmth and ambience of the performance was captured in this BBC stereo recording.