Otto Klemperer

Erratic and sometimes frighteningly moody, both in rehearsal and in performance, Klemperer was also an intensely focussed idealist. Born in Breslau (then Germany, now Wrocław, Poland) to Jewish parents, he studied music in Berlin before his big break came when he assisted Mahler in the triumphant 1910 premiere of the latter’s monumental Eighth Symphony. After that he rose steadily, becoming director at the Kroll Opera in Berlin, where he energetically championed new music, including operas by Hindemith, Janáček, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Klemperer fled to Austria, then to the USA where, partly as an act of defiance against Hitler, he began to concentrate more on the core German repertory. Never easy to work with, he fell out with authorities in America, then in Budapest; but in partnership with Walter Legge, English record producer and founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra, he went on to establish an unparalleled reputation in the German classics, especially Beethoven. (In 1954, Karajan flew to London just to hear Klemperer conduct Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.) In later years Klemperer became famous for his slow, deliberate tempos, but earlier recordings reveal that he could also take music very fast. In any case, his sense of rhythmic articulation meant that his performances usually had compelling momentum as well as deeply probing expression.