The famously reclusive, eccentric Kleiber died on July 13.
Known for his perfectionism, he was beloved by the musicians fortunate enough to come into contact with him.
They realized the music they were making under his direction was music as it was meant to be, but rarely is.
After reading various obituaries over the past week, I purchased one of his signature recordings, the Beethoven Fifth and Seventh Symphonies.
The Fifth was wonderful, but it was the Seventh - which I'm listening to at this very moment - which was the revelation.
I'd previously dismissed the Seventh as not for me.
Wrong.
This recording is revelatory.
The best investment of $10.99 (at amazon) I've made this year.
Harvey Sachs, in Sunday's New York Times, wrote an appreciation of Kleiber, which follows:
__________________
The Conductor Who Could Not Tolerate Error
Carlos Kleiber's rehearsals for Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" at La Scala in Milan in the spring of 1978 were fraught and exhausting.
The opera had not been performed there for 13 seasons, and many younger members of the orchestra had never played it.
Kleiber's demand for 17 full rehearsals had been met.
But instead of allowing the orchestra to read through substantial stretches of the score at the first sessions and going over the details later, he pounced on the inevitable errors from the first minutes of the first rehearsal.
The Scala musicians adored him, having performed other operas with him during the two previous seasons, but in "Tristan" players and conductor seemed at cross-purposes.
During a break, I was stretching my legs in a corridor when I saw Kleiber walking toward me. (Through the intercession of a shared friend, I was one of the lucky few he allowed to observe his rehearsals.)
Although I knew him only slightly, he asked, "Why do I keep trying to conduct?"
My jaw must have dropped, because he continued: "I can't get them to understand what I want. I shouldn't be conducting at all."
I began to make a tactful comment about the orchestra's unfamiliarity with "Tristan"; he saw where I was heading and stopped me short.
"I know, I know," he said. "That's just the point. I can't bear to let the errors go uncorrected. It's bigger than I am."
The production finally gelled, but not until the second or third performance.
Article comments