A rediscovery of a master: a leading podiumstar during his lifetime, Paul Kletzki, born Paweł Kleckiin the Polish city of Łódź on 21 March 1900, nowadays is considered an insider’s tip amongconnoisseurs. Volume 9 in theLUCERNEFESTIVAL Historic Performances series presents a live recording from thesummer of 1946 as a first release. It shows Kletzki at the height of his art:on the podium of the Swiss Festival Orchestra he realises excitinginterpretations of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, Schubert’s Unfinished and Beethoven’s LeonoreOvertureNo 3 - expressive and with a stupendous sense of musicalarchitecture.

Paul Kletzki fled as many as threetotalitarian regimes - initially Nazi Germany, where he had established himselfas a composer and conductor since the 1920s, and where Wilhelm Furtwängler hadchampioned him; later on, Stalin’s Soviet Union; and finally fascist Italy -before settling in Switzerland in 1939. Here, he became a regular guest at theInternationale Musikfestwochen Luzern, today’s LUCERNE FESTIVAL, and began hisinternational career which led him to work with all the important orchestras,whilst he also became chief conductor of the symphony orchestras at Liverpool,Dallas, Bern, as well (as Ernest Ansermet’s successor) as the Orchestre de laSuisse Romande. This live recording documents a charity concert which Kletzkiconducted following studio recordings made in Lucerne for EMI: the first ever recordingmade by a Swiss orchestra for the international record market. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote aboutKletzki’s performance that the “works […] were interpreted with a brilliantperfection of intellectual excitement and spiritual fulfilment as it is to beexperienced only extremely rarely”.

This live recording from 1946 is one of theoldest recordings in the audite catalogue. It is based on the originalrecording which was made using acetate discs, each with a duration of c.4minutes. Despite their old age and the particular technical challengespresented by the remastering process, Kletzki’s impressive dynamics have beenfully preserved.

In cooperation with audite, LUCERNEFESTIVAL presents outstanding concert recordings of artists who have shaped thefestival throughout its history. The aim of this CD edition is to rediscovertreasures - most of which have not been released previously - from the firstsix decades of the festival, which was founded in 1938 with a special galaconcert conducted by Arturo Toscanini. These recordings have been madeavailable by the archives of SRF Swiss Radio and Television, which hasbroadcast the Lucerne concerts from the outset. Carefully re-mastered andsupplemented with photos and materials from the LUCERNE FESTIVAL archive, theyrepresent a sonic history of the festival.

More about Paul Kletzki in Lucerne and Audite : https://www.audite.de

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Paul Kletzki in Lucerne : Brahms, Schubert and Beethoven