Korngold: Symphony, Op. 40 – Rudolf Kempe & Münchner Philharmoniker (1972 World Premiere Recording)

Rudolf Kempe, conductor
Münchner Philharmoniker

Recorded 27 November 1972
Produced by and remastered with supervision of George Korngold

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Symphony, Op. 40

00:00 – 1. Moderato, ma energico
14:11 – 2. Scherzo: Allegro molto
23:20 – 3. Adagio: Lento
38:21 – 4. Finale: Allegro gaio

This is a curious one. Many have written effusively on the strengths of this world premiere recording. It is regarded as a gold standard against which all other recordings of the Symphony are compared, yet I can't shake off the feeling that it's been utterly abandoned by the industry. It has long been deleted from the catalog not once but twice, by RCA and Varèse Sarabande, with no promise of return. It also doesn't seem to exist on any streaming platforms, especially not on YouTube. Individual CDs of the Varèse Sarabande reissue are hard to come by, and my first attempt at ordering one (with the intent of making this video) was lost to the chaos of the pandemic.

As "definitive" recordings go (I dislike such a label), this surely fits the bill. Every moment of this Kempe performance strikes me as a labour of love. Kempe is as compelling here as he is in his Strauss and Wagner. The Münchner Philharmoniker play as if the Symphony were firmly in their canon repertoire since 1954. I only hope that we listeners do not allow this recording to suffer the same oblivion the Symphony itself had for some twenty years, before Kempe and Korngold's son George rehabilitated it.

I apologise in advance for all ads – while there is nothing I can do about the copyright claims, I have no plans of monetising this channel and strongly recommend using AdBlock for a seamless experience.