Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 6 "Pastoral." Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra. EMI CDM 7243-5-66792-2.

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 6 "Pastoral." Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra. EMI CDM 7243-5-66792-2.

The story goes that when Klemperer's producer, Walter Legge, asked if he didn't think Klemperer took the Sixth Symphony's scherzo a little too slowly, Klemperer replied, "You will get used to it." Well, we've had more than 40 years to get used to it, and I suspect it has by now pretty much grown on us. Klemperer's performance continues to be one of the most relaxed, leisurely, bucolic interpretations ever put to disc. It has not and will not find favor among the Toscanini crowd, but it has delighted most everyone else since it was recorded in 1957. The first movement, "The Arrival in the Country," is taken very deliberately, very purposefully, its repetitions made more weighty through its unhurried pace, yet never dragging, never feeling lugubrious. The second movement, "The Scene at the Brook," flows naturally and smoothly, maintaining the easygoing nature of the setting. Then comes Klemperer's famous third movement, usually a quick and boisterous allegro representing peasant merrymaking, but here taken as though the peasants were more than tipsy when the scherzo started. The storm that follows is weightily structured in big, bold outlines, flowing effortlessly into one of the most joyous "Shepherd's Hymn" in any Sixth around. This is no namby-pamby performance, but one with a clear and assertive vision of pastoral life.

My past reservations about the recording were in regard to its sound. Its previous CD embodiment was thin, harsh, and noisy. By comparison, this new 20-bit remastering, a part of EMI's "Klemperer Legacy" series, is smoother, more full, and relatively quiet. Nonetheless, it retains a good deal of clarity, sounding more transparent than most new releases. The disc's coupling, the First Symphony, is not nearly so characterful as the Sixth, being too massive to convey very much of the work's good cheer, but it is even more richly recorded than the Sixth.