Symphony No 39 / Oboe Concerto / German Dances / etc (recorded 1955/56)

Due to interference from the Nazis, Kleiber (who was not Jewish) resigned his post in 1934 and left Germany in 1935. After this, he conducted in London, Prague, Brussels, Buenos Aries, Amsterdam and Salzburg before taking up residence in Argentina in 1939. In 1948, he returned to Europe and became conductor of the Berlin State Opera in East Berlin which he resigned from in 1955 due to the poor conditions. From 1952 he was sought after as guest conductor in London, Vienna and particularly in Cologne and Stuttgart. His VPO and Concertgebouw recordings with Decca from 1948 to 1956 were major highlights of their catalogue, notably his recording of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro.

Kleiber was unquestionably a great Mozart conductor and the compilation here represents material that has been issued before (Mozart's 39, the 4 German Dances in poor transfers) and some new additions (the Oboe Concerto, Mozart 36 and some rare rehearsal material) which have not been issued in authorized editions before.

All the WDR Mozart performances were part of Kleiber's contribution to the Mozart Bicentenary Year in 1956.

All these recordings (except for Mozart's Symphony No.36) have been sourced and licensed from the ORIGINAL WDR MASTER TAPES and represent the exceptional high quality acclaimed in the first batch of Kleiber CDs on Masters (MM0022 Beethoven & MM0032 Mozart & Tchaikovsky).

The recording of Mozart's Symphony No.36 with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart from New Year's Eve 1955 was hailed by John Russell as "one of his finest achievements." It has not been issued before.

BBC Music Magazine said of MM0032: "...an account of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony; .it's amazing, it's devastating...it's preceded by Weber's Euryanthe Overture, exploding like a rocket, amd Mozart's Symphony No. 33, in which Kleiber sets a standard for his son Carlos to match."