Note: One complete set of Klemperer-conducted Beethoven Symphonies which is currently available on CD but not included with the regular reviews is MUS886 on the Music & Arts label.

The earlier Philharmonia recordings from London are generally considered definitive, and their sound quality is superior to other Klemperer/ Beethoven sets. But these recordings of the Beethoven Cycle presented in Vienna's Musikverein 29 May - 7 June, 1960 with the Philharmonia and with soloists Wilma Lipp, Ursula Boese, Fritz Wunderlich, and Franz Crass, are worthy of mention.

The local critics present were impressed by the Viennese performances, judging by the excerpts of their reviews reproduced in Peter Heyworth's Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times, vol.2, p.285. They were especially impressed by two performances. One reviewer wrote that the second concert, which featured Symphonies No. 4 and 5 and the overture to Egmont, confirmed and strengthened "an impression of truly authentic Beethoven." Another reviewer, according to Heyworth's account, "could not recall a performance to equal" the performance of the Ninth Symphony. Quotes Heyworth, "Klemperer hardly conducted ... Sometimes he seemed only to be listening. But what tension and intensity, what virility in the organic growth of the movements ..., what clarity of structure, what melodic expressiveness in the slow movement and hymn-like ecstasy in the finale."

The complete boxed set (MUS886 on the Music & Arts label) is currently available for around $50 from the following sources: Music and Arts and Compact Disc Connection (select "classical performers whose names contain" from the drop-down search menu, and type in Klemperer).

A short film clip of the rehearsal for Egmont is part of the Stanford Collection, and may be viewed by appointment.