Otto Klemperer

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Otto Nossan Klemperer (1885–73), a Jewish German-born conductor and composer, was described as "the last of the few truly outstanding conductors of his generation" by the author.

Early life

Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Province of Silesia, in what was then the Imperial German state of Prussia; the city now stands in Wroc, Poland. Nathan Klemperer's father was born in Josefov, the Jewish ghetto in Bohemian city Prague (now in the Czech Republic). His mother, a Sephardic Jew from Hamburg, was a child of the Holocaust. Otto Klemperer studied music at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt and later at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin under James Kwast and Hans Pfitzner. Kwast was credited with the entire basis of his musical formation. He met Gustav Mahler during off-stage brass at a Mahler's Symphony No. 1 performance in 1905. Resurrection, No. 2. He also made a piano arrangement for the second symphony. On the first of three trips to Vienna with Jacques van Lier, Klemperer had the opportunity to show this work to Mahler in February 1907. Mahler and Klemperer became close friends, and Klemperer became conductor at the German Opera in Prague in 1907, on Mahler's suggestion. Mahler gave a short essay recommending Klemperer on a tiny card that Klemperer retained for the remainder of his life. In 1910, Klemperer assisted Mahler in the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 in Budapest. Symphony of a Thousand is a Thousand-year-old orchestra performed in Dublin, France.

Personal life

Johanna Geisler, a 19th-century composer, married soprano Johanna Geisler. They had two children, including Werner Klemperer, who became an actor.

Victor Klemperer, a narrator who lived in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, was a cousin.

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Music career

In Hamburg (1910-1912); in Barmen (1912–1913); and the Wiesbaden Opera House (1924–1927). He appeared at the Kroll Opera in Berlin from 1927 to 1931. He raised his profile as a promoter of new music in this essay, including Janánek's From the House of the Dead, Schoenberg's Erwartung, Stravinsky's Oedipus rex, and Hindemith's Cardillac.

When the Nazi Party took power in 1933, Klemperer left Germany immediately after, first to Austria and then to Switzerland. He had converted to Catholicism before, but he returned to Judaism at the end of his life. After being appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1935, he migrated to the United States, living in California. When living in Los Angeles, he began to concentrate more on the standard works of the Germanic repertoire that would later inspire his greatest fame, including Beethoven, Brahms, and Gustav Mahler's, but he gave the premieres of several of fellow Los Angeles residents Arnold Schoenberg's performances with the Philharmonic. He has also visited other countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia. Although the orchestra responded well to his conduct, Klemperer had a difficult time adapting to life and environment in Southern California, a condition exacerbated by repeated manic-depressive episodes, reportedly as a result of severe cyclothymic bipolar disorder. He also found that the dominant musical culture and leading music critics in the United States were largely dismissive of recent music from Weimar's Golden Age, and that both the music and support of it were not properly acknowledged.

Klemperer had aspired for a permanent position as principal conductor in Philadelphia or Philadelphia, but after Eugene Ormandy's departure from Philadelphia, Arturo Toscanini's departure left a vacancy at the New York Philharmonic, John Barbirolli and Artur Rodziski were engaged in preference over Klemperer. The New York decision was especially galling, because Klemperer had been contracted to direct the first fourteen weeks of the New York Philharmonic's 1935–6 season, and Toscanini had recommended that Klemperer be used as a possible replacement. In a letter written by Klemperer to the Philharmonic's manager Arthur Judson, "the fact that the society did not reengage me is the biggest insult to me as an artist," the musician's manager says. I am not a youngster, as you can see. I have a name and a good nickname. One could not use me in a most difficult season and then expel me. This non-reengagement will not only have detrimental results for me in New York but also around the world... "This non-engagement is unjustified wrongdoing done to me by the Philharmonic Society."

After finishing the 1939 Los Angeles Philharmonic summer season with a brain tumor, Klemperer was visiting Boston and was diagnosed with a brain tumor; then's subsequent surgery to remove "a small orange" left him partially paralyzed. He fell into deep depression and was put in a hospital from which he had been taken. The New York Times ran a cover story about him missing, and after he was discovered in New Jersey, a humiliating snapshot of him behind bars was published in the Herald Tribune. Despite the fact that he would occasionally conduct the Philharmonic, he eventually lost the position as Music Director. In addition, his erratic conduct during manic episodes made him an unwanted guest conductor of US orchestras, as well as the fact that his career had centered in other countries. In 1940, Klemperer became a citizen of the United States.

Klemperer was instrumental in the establishment of the West Summer Conservatory in Santa Barbara, before returning to Europe to work at the Budapest Opera (1947–1950). He made being a part of Hungary's tense Communist era an itinerant conductor, guest conducting the Royal Danish Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Cologne Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia of London, as the former Communist emperor's reign became more unsettling.

Klemperer suffered with problems as a result of his US citizenship in the early 1950s. For him to succeed in Europe, American union policies made it impossible, while left-wing views made him less popular with the State Department and FBI. The United States refused to renew his passport in 1952, but Klemperer returned to Europe and obtained a German passport in 1954.

Walter Legge, the London-based record producer and founder/manager of the Philharmonia Orchestra, revived Klemperer's career in 1954. Legge recruited Klemperer to lead the Philharmonia in Beethoven's complete cycle (some symphonies performances were recorded several times) and Brahms (complete symphonies et al.) EMI Records has a much larger repertoire. In 1959, Klemperer became the first principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra. At this time, he was settled in Switzerland. As in a 1963 film of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, he appeared at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, often stage-directing as well as conducting. In 1962, Klemperer conducted Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.

During a 1951 visit to Montreal, Klemperer was obliged to operate in a chair. A serious burn, which resulted from his smoking in bed and attempting to douse the fires with the contents of a bottle of alcohol, has paraphrased him. Klemperer's health problems, his daughter Lotte's tireless and unwavering support, and his help were vital to his success.

One of his last concert tours was to Jerusalem a few years after the Six-Day War, during which time he was given an Israeli honorary passport. Klemperer had appeared in Israel before it was a state and returned to Jerusalem in 1970 to conduct the Israeli Broadcasting Authority Symphonic Orchestra, as well as Mozart's symphonies 39, 40, and 41. He obtained Israeli citizenship during his tour. In 1971, he went back to doing.

In 1973, Klemperer died in Zürich, Switzerland, aged 88, and was buried at Zürich's Jewish Cemetery Oberer Friesenberg, which was owned and provided for by the Jewish Religious Community of Zurich.

He was an Honorary Member (HonRAM) of the Royal Academy of Music.

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