Classics Reconsidered: Otto Klemperer's recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion
Edward Breen and Mark Seow compare notes on Otto Klemperer’s distinctive 1960‑61 recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion EB Bach performance changed so profoundly during the decades immediately after this was recorded that it is quite hard from our modern standpoint to think of it as a classic at all, but for many people - such as my grandfather who had this on LP - it was the recording of the Matthew Passion and it conveyed appropriate authority. 1961 was quite a year, West Side Story won several Oscars, two years either side of this were the iconic films Ben Hur and Jason and the Argonauts . This golden age of epic movies is on my mind when I listen to Klemperer’s recording today since there’s also a sense of epic storytelling, full technicolour, big-budget treatment and star-studded cast from this presentation of Bach. Just consider the forces: The Philharmonia choir and orchestra, Peter Pears as evangelist, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Jesus and even Heather Harper as a mere mai...
