Classics Reconsidered: Otto Klemperer's 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 maid. And to extend that metaphor further there is even something Hollywoodesque about the tread of that opening tempo (which I hope won’t deter anyone); since this first chorus, itself a gigantic chorale prelude, took over half the entire side of the first LP coming in just shy of 12 minutes, which is nearly twice McCreesh’s one-per-part recording 40 years later. Is Klemperer embarking on a Herculean or a Sisyphean task with that tempo? I can’t decide, but I'm gripped.
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To read the full text of this feature please visit Gramophone.co.uk (April 2026)
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