Otto Klemperer - Career, Further reading, Discography

Conductor, born in Wroc?aw, SW Poland (formerly Breslau, Prussia). He studied at Frankfurt and Berlin, first appeared as a conductor in 1906, made a name as a champion of modern music, and was appointed director of the Kroll Opera in Berlin (1927–31). Nazism drove him to the USA, where he became director of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra (1933–9). In his later years, he concentrated mainly on the German classical and Romantic composers, and was particularly known for his interpretation of Beethoven. He also composed six symphonies, a Mass, and Lieder.

Otto Klemperer (May 14, 1885 – July 6, 1973) was a German-born conductor and composer.

Above all, his fame rests on his interpretations of Germanic repertoire, of which he generally gave austere and grand performances (whether live or on record), in later years often with notoriously slow tempi (there were notable exceptions - his recordings of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony and Mahler's Second Symphony "Resurrection" are among the fastest on record).

He was the father of Hogan's Heroes actor Werner Klemperer, and was the cousin of Victor Klemperer.

Career

Born in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), he studied music first in Frankfurt, and later in Berlin under Hans Pfitzner.

In 1905 he met Mahler while conducting the off-stage brass at a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. The two became friends, and Klemperer became conductor at the German Opera in Prague in 1907 on Mahler's recommendation.

Later, in 1910, Klemperer assisted Mahler in the premiere of his Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand.

Klemperer went on to hold a number of posts, including conductorships in Hamburg (1910 – 1912);

From 1927 to 1931, he was conductor at the Kroll Opera in Berlin.

In 1933, once the Nazi Party had reached power, Klemperer, who was Jewish, left Germany and moved to the United States.

Following the end of World War II, Klemperer returned to Continental Europe to work at the Budapest Opera (1947 – 1950). Finding Communist rule in Hungary increasingly irksome, he accepted the conductorship of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and stayed there from 1950 to 1953, before moving to London and becoming the first principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1959.

He also worked at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, sometimes stage-directing as well as conducting, as in a 1963 production of Wagner's Lohengrin.

Klemperer is less well known as a composer, but he wrote a number of pieces, including six symphonies, a Mass, nine string quartets, and an opera called Das Ziel.

Late in his life, Klemperer suffered from partial paralysis which had largely been brought on as a result of surgery in 1939 to remove a tumor on his brain;

A severe fall he suffered during his Canadian residence worsened matters.

He died in Zürich two years later, aged 88, and was buried in the Israelitischer Friedhof — Oberer Friesenberg in that city.

Further reading

Peter Heyworth, Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times.

Discography

Klemperer made many recordings, and many have become classics. Worthy of note are:

Bach: St Matthew Passion Bach: Mass in B Minor Beethoven: Symphony cycles Beethoven: Symphony No. Arts) Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (with Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich) Mahler: Symphony No.