Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon: CD Box Set

Carlos Kleiber disliked recordings — he once said that “every unproduced record is a good record” — but those he made have naturally come to occupy a special place in recording history. Deutsche Grammophon had the good fortune to be the label with which this most charismatic of conductors was associated.  Imbued with Kleiber’s characteristics of intellectual rigour, passion and perfectionism, the few recordings he did make are among the greatest treasures of the DG catalogue. In 2011, 100 members of his own profession voted Carlos Kleiber ‘the greatest conductor of all time,’ but he also remains the personification of the genius recluse — Herbert von Karajan used to joke that Kleiber would only conduct when his fridge was empty.

Tracklist

CD1                              BEETHOVEN: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7
Wiener Philharmoniker
“Mercurial, thrilling accounts of two warhorses from the unique Carlos Kleiber.”  — GRAMOPHONE
CD2                              BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4
Wiener Philharmoniker
“Brahms's Fourth Symphony, full of detail and with an extraordinary sense of architectural logic, has not been surpassed since.”  — THE GUARDIAN (UK)
CD3                              SCHUBERT: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 8 ‘Unfinished’
Wiener Philharmoniker
“Schubert’s "Unfinished" with the Vienna Philharmonic is testimony enough to [Kleiber’s] genius … [a] benchmark performance: it has never sounded more perfectly complete.”  — INDEPENDENT (UK)
CDs4/5                    J. STRAUSS: Die Fledermaus
Bavarian State Orchestra
“Better than any other production …it is impossible not to love.”  — DIAPASON (FRANCE)
CD4                              VERDI: La Traviata
Bavarian State Orchestra
“This set's probably still difficult to beat when it comes to studio recordings in (good) stereo sound, and it's a 'classic' in its own right.” — GRAMOPHONE
“It's hard to imagine a much better "Traviata", let alone a better-conducted one.”   — INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW
CDs8/10                WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde
Staatskapelle Dresden
“No subsequent recording, and there have been quite a few, equals this …” — BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
CDs11/12            WEBER: Der Freischütz - Act 2, Scene 4 - 6 & Act 3
Staatskapelle Dresden