Thanks Doc, I'd forgotten that. It's hard today to imagine what a force Toscanini was. He was music in America. Millions tuned into his radio broadcasts, for many their first introduction to classical music. It's interesting how his star has waned. But I came from a Klemperer household — my mom was an LA girl when K led the LA Philharmonic, and she idolized him. Such radically different personalities and styles.
I'm a big fan of Klemperer's work, too, especially his Brahms and his Mahler. I have yet to find a recording of the Brahms German Requiem that surpasses the one he conducted in 1961 for EMI. That said, my recorded music library has room for a wide range of conductors including Klemperer, Toscanini, Szell, Boult, Stokowski (one of my favorites), Ormandy, and Reiner (another favorite).
Yes, very nice rendition. But what gets me on Karen Carpenter's recording is her deeper voice, wide vocal range treatment and semi-guttural phrasing of some stanzas.
Karen Carpenter had the type of voice that comes along once in a generation, if you're lucky. I'm a huge fan of her vocal work and wouldn't be without her version of "Solitaire." What puts Jane Olivor's version on my must-have list is the intimacy of the performance and the sense of vulnerability that she projects, especially in the choruses. The Carpenters' overdubbing of Karen's voice in the choruses is beautifully done, but it doesn't move me quite as much as Jane's simpler approach does.