Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon (12CD Box Set + 2 Blu-Ray)

A collection of all of Carlos Kleiber’s audio recordings for Deutsche Grammophon – virtually all of them ‘legendary’ – now with 2 Blu-Ray audio discs in addition to 12 CDs.

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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.

TRACK LIST

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)
 
CDs 4/5
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
 
CDs
8/10 WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde
Staatskapelle Dresden
“No subsequent recording, and there have been quite a few, equals this …” — BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
 
CDs
11/12 WEBER: Der Freischütz - Act 2, Scene 4 - 6 & Act 3
Staatskapelle Dresden
 
Carlos Kleiber, conductor