Complete recordings on Deutsche Grammophon

"Though he conducted less and less frequently in the decade before he died in 2004, Carlos Kleiber's reputation as one of the greatest 20th-century conductors has remained utterly secure ... Kleiber was a notoriously exacting artist, who remained deeply suspicious of the whole recording process, and his studio career was a relatively brief one ... The set includes four operas altogether ... If the Traviata is a touch strait-laced, and the Fledermaus rather outshone by Kleiber's live Munich performance available on DVD, the Tristan contains some remarkable things ... while the tingling theatricality of the Freischütz has never been bettered on disc ... Even after more than 30 years the two Beethoven performances, of the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies, seem as fresh and energised as they ever did ... This is an extraordinary collection of performances".

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