SATB

I'm not going to rate this recording. It will require a lifetime of living with it to approach a decent judgment. My first Matthew Passion was Harnoncourt's first Telefunken production: at the time considered a radical interpretation that eschewed the romantic, traditional performance practices that, theoretically, were typified by Klemperer and his generation. So when I finally got around to listening to Klemperer's famous recording, I had the odd sensation of the 'shock of the new' by encountering the old. It is soooo slow! But that is not a bad thing by any means. There's a funny story about this, actually. Apparently, the soloists were having so much trouble with the slow tempi that they drew straws to determine which of them would confront Klemperer with a request to speed things up a little. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau got lucky. Fully aware of Klemperer's reputation for volatitlity, F-D decided on the indirect approach. 'Dr. Klemperer,' he began, 'I dreamed last night that I met Bach in heaven.' 'Is that so, Herr Fischer? What did he have to say?' 'He said: 'You know, Dr. Klemperer is a genius; but why, please tell me, is everything he conducts so slow?'' 'How interesting, Herr Fischer, how interesting! For, do you know, I, too, dreamed I met Bach last night.' 'That's remarkable, Dr. Klemperer, what did he say to you?' 'He asked me this question: 'Who the devil is this ignoramus Fischer-Dieskau?'?'

I have nothing to add to the deep review by USYDArtsMusicLibrary.