Various orchestras/ Carlos KleiberDeutsche Grammophon 477 8826 (12 CDs) *****

Carlos Kleiber (1930-2004) was a conductor who reminded one of the perfectability of music- making. He was full of apparent contradictions: his handling of line and rubato was tight yet pliable; his control of colour and ensemble was fabulous but rarely overtly showy. Kleiber’s eye for detail was uncanny, as if he had the simultaneous use of a telephoto lens and a microscope. His interpretative approach embraced centrality and novelty, and orchestras and soloists seemed to want to play or sing like angels for him. Yet Kleiber not only recorded very little, but conducted very little. He worked on his own terms and famously took on one engagement in exchange for an expensive Audi. His DG recordings – symphonies by Beethoven (5 & 7), Schubert (3&8) and Brahms (No 4), plus

Die Fledermaus, La traviata, Tristan und Isolde

and

Der Freischütz

– constitute a musically bountiful legacy. See url.ie/57as