OTTO

KLEMPERER

     

The conductor Otto Klemperer is best remembered today for his intellectual interpretations of the classical and romantic repertory, which includes works of Beethoven. His first interest, however, was the music of the 20th century, and he rose to fame as a conductor of contemporary opera.

Klemper n in Breslau, Germany, on May 14, 1885. By the age of five he was taking piano lessons from his mother, a professional pianist and composer, and at age 16 went to study at the Frankfurt Conservatory. When his teacher, James Kwast, took up a new post in Berlin, Klemperer followed him. It was here in 1905 that he first met Gustav MAHLER, an encounter that was to have an important influence on his career. Mahler became Klemperer’s mentor, employing him as a choral conductor and recommending him to the Prague Opera Company, where Klemperer led works from the Italian and German repertory.

In 1910, Klemperer moved to Hamburg, where he conducted the city’s premiere of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 to critical acclaim. Scandal erupted in 1912 when Klemperer embarked on an affair with the singer Elisabeth Schumann; her husband responded by slashing the conductor with a whip one night when he appeared on the podium. The lovers eloped, though they were soon to separate, and Klemperer had to find new work. He became deputy to Hans Pfitzner, his first composition teacher, at the Strasbourg Opera. Full directorships followed at Cologne (1917–24) and Wiesbaden (1924–27).

By this time Klemperer had become firmly established as one of the leading German conductors of his generation. In 1927, he was given charge of the Kroll Opera in Berlin, a new government-sponsored venture dedicated to the performance of recent and contemporary music. In the four short years of the Kroll’s existence, a plethora of new works was produced, including Kurt WEILL’S Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Igor STRAVINSKY’S Oedipus Rex, Paul HINDEMITH’S Cardillac, and Leos JANÁCEK’S House of the Dead. It was an impressive achievement, and of great significance both to Klemperer’s career and to the development of 20th-century opera. The Kroll Opera was forced to close in July 1931, because of the combination of economic difficulties and pressure from right-wing extremists.

TAKING REFUGE IN THE U.S.

The Nazi rise to power made it imprudent for Klemperer, born a Jew (although as an adult converted to Catholicism), to remain in Germany. He emigrated in 1933, going first to Switzerland and then to the United States, where he became director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. During this period he also studied composition with Arnold SCHOENBERG, another European refugee, whose operas he had conducted at the Kroll.

An operation for a brain tumour in 1939, although successful, forced Klemperer into semi-retirement, and he did little conducting for several years. In 1947, he returned to Europe to conduct the Budapest Opera. Budapest could not give him the artistic freedom he had enjoyed in Berlin and Los Angeles, however. He resigned after three years, appearing internationally as a guest artist until the London Philharmonia Orchestra hired him in 1955 as principal conductor.

Klemperer retired in 1972 and died in Zurich, Switzerland, on July 6, 1973. His recordings remain textbook examples for conductors, emphasising the form and structure of the work, rather than exploiting the music’s virtuoso and programmatic elements.

Jane Prendergast

SEE ALSO:
FURTWANGLER, WILHELM; OPERA; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC; TOSCANINI, ARTURO.

FURTHER READING

Heyworth, Peter. Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

SUGGESTED LISTENING

Beethoven: Complete Symphonies; Fidelio;

Brahms: Symphony No. 3;

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde;

Symphony No. 2; Symphony No. 4;

Mozart: Don Giovanni;

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht.