Though Klemperer's conducting is often described as rugged, these powerful and individual readings of Mozart's last two symphonies give quite a different slant on his genius. characteristically speeds are on the slow side, repeats are never observed except in minuets, and Mozartian charm has no place in Klemperer's view, but elegance and refinement lie at the very heart of the playing. The reading of No. 40 is the more distinctive and compelling. Though in the outer movements you might initially feel that such slow speeds make the result plodding, the spring of rhythm and the lightness of texture, with phrasing elegant but never stickily expressive, make for wonderfully luminous results. Dynamic contrasts are all the sharper, and the early 1960s recording (for once no venue or dates are given) is very vivid in this digital transfer, with thinnish strings and well-defined woodwind giving much more of an authentic balance than was common in those days. There is of course a toughness behind Klemperer's view, nowhere more clearly expressed than in the syncopations of the Minuet, in which is then framed a most delicate account of the Trio.
The Jupiter is very similar in its stylistic approach, but I find the results marginally less magnetic. Even so, power and elegance again stand side by side. The slow speed and refined phrasing of the andante, for example, have no hint of sentimentality, and the spring of the Minuet gives it an almost operatic flavour, while the lightness of the opening of the finale makes the later swaggering grandeur all the more compelling, with superb articulation from the Philharmonia strings. This splendid CD issue is not just a pious tribute to the past but a source of refreshment to delight many more than Klemperer devotees.'