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Otto Klemperer #1
Otto Klemperer: Volume 1, 1885-1933: His Life and Times
OTTO KLEMPERER was one of the great conductors of the century, best known in the last years of his life for his performances and recordings of the classical symphonic repertory from Mozart to Mahler. The uncompromising integrity of his interpretations earned him a respect bordering on reverence among fellow artists as well as the general public. He also won sympathy for the courage that enabled him to continue conducting in the teeth of accidents and illnesses that would have finished the career of a less tenacious man.
That, however, is only part of the story. Throughout his life Klemperer was obliged to struggle against a severe psychological illness. A manic-depressive temperament caused violent swings in mood that affected his career and in his earlier years involved him in tempestuous love affairs. In the mot scandalous of these episodes he eloped with the great singer, Elisabeth Schumann, who was a recently married woman.
Although later regarded as a classicist, Klemperer was earlier a leading champion of new music; as director of the Kroll Opera in Berlin he headed a house that breathed new life into opera and made it available to a broader public. This book contains the first full and critical study of the Kroll to be published in any language.
When Hitler came to power in 1933 Klemperer was obliged to flee from Germany. Emigration and a long life gave him an almost unique variety of musical lives, ranging from the nineteenth-century conditions in Austrian Prague to the wild west circus in Los Angeles, from Strasbourg Opera run as a bastion of Prussianism to the Stalinism in Hungary. He was also involved with some of the greatest composers of his time, such as Mahler, who launched him on his career, Busoni, Strauss, Pfitzner, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith and Weill.
Peter Heyworth's biography reveals Klemperer as a crucial figure in the musical life of the first half of the twentieth century. It is based on family letters and a wide range of documents hitherto unused. The first volume covers the years 1885 to 1933 and includes a discography by Michael Gray of all Klemperer's recordings of the period.
That, however, is only part of the story. Throughout his life Klemperer was obliged to struggle against a severe psychological illness. A manic-depressive temperament caused violent swings in mood that affected his career and in his earlier years involved him in tempestuous love affairs. In the mot scandalous of these episodes he eloped with the great singer, Elisabeth Schumann, who was a recently married woman.
Although later regarded as a classicist, Klemperer was earlier a leading champion of new music; as director of the Kroll Opera in Berlin he headed a house that breathed new life into opera and made it available to a broader public. This book contains the first full and critical study of the Kroll to be published in any language.
When Hitler came to power in 1933 Klemperer was obliged to flee from Germany. Emigration and a long life gave him an almost unique variety of musical lives, ranging from the nineteenth-century conditions in Austrian Prague to the wild west circus in Los Angeles, from Strasbourg Opera run as a bastion of Prussianism to the Stalinism in Hungary. He was also involved with some of the greatest composers of his time, such as Mahler, who launched him on his career, Busoni, Strauss, Pfitzner, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith and Weill.
Peter Heyworth's biography reveals Klemperer as a crucial figure in the musical life of the first half of the twentieth century. It is based on family letters and a wide range of documents hitherto unused. The first volume covers the years 1885 to 1933 and includes a discography by Michael Gray of all Klemperer's recordings of the period.
- GenresMusic
475 pages, Hardcover
First published March 29, 1996
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April 10, 2024(One of the reasons I picked up this biography is because I've developed a keen interest in what it means to lose a war - possibly due (at least in part) to the time I spent in Hungary. Growing up in the 60's and 70's in the UK, we were force fed accounts of our plucky little nation standing alone against the might of the Nazis. I grew up on a diet of Victor comic and the Biggin Hill air show which glorified war and the triumph of good against evil.
Whilst this narrative is partly true, it doesn't provide a comprehensive idea of what war means to all of its participants. We are led to believe that there are winners and losers. I disagree. But what does it mean to be on the losing side? How does it actually feel? This is impossible to understand if you're an Englishman of any age and this is exactly why it interests me.
And so I have over time developed an interest in German history and culture. Which is of course a very big subject and gives me plenty of opportunities for increasing my knowledge and understanding.
In recent years alongside jazz, I've begun to enjoy classical music and of course because of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms this has become another rewarding German road for me to walk along. Hence I picked up Otto Klemperer's biography.)
Heyworth's biography was exactly what a non-musician with an interest in social history would have asked for. Then again so was Otto Klemperer's life.
Born to an assimilated Jewish mother from a wealthy and successful Hamburg family and a father with much stronger religious background from Austro Hungarian Prague via Breslau. Both parents were musical. His mother played piano and his father sang and at home Otto grew up listening to them perform Schubert's lieder etc.
His early career was spent in musical theatre repertory, with positions at a number of a provincial opera houses. Despite my efforts to acquire an interest in opera, the art form continues to evade me. And yet this operatic apprenticeship was fascinating.
Klemperer spent most of WWI at the Strasbourg Opera house, 30 miles behind the lines, putting on patriotic productions of Mahler with military musicians in the orchestra and with much begging and borrowing. Once again here is the topic of war from the "other side".
Later in Cologne he converts to Catholicism. Cologne being a centre of German Catholicism coupled with his immersion in the religious music of Bach and Beethoven, his was a "natural" conversion and certainly nothing to do with either anti-Semitic persecution or a desire for assimilation.
He marries a gentile who he then discovers has an illegitimate daughter who she had been passing off as her younger sister. And yet the marriage was very strong, although his wife's relationship with his mother was always somewhat strained.
He conducts very few concerts at this stage of his career and even once he moves to Berlin as director of the Kroll Theatre he mostly works on operatic productions.
During the period of the Weimar Republic, The Kroll Theatre became a political and cultural football. And it is here that Heywood's account of the complex social, cultural and political situation confronting Klemperer, comes alive. It may not have been his intention to hang a part of the Weimar story around Klemperer's shoulders but that nevertheless is what he achieved. It reminds me of two similarly structured biographies that succeed by harnessing the individual's story within the shifting historical sands that surround him. I suspect that Tolstoy would have approved of all three.
Klemperer is of course the star of the show. A man who worked and came into contact with a plethora of the good and the great. George Grosz, László Moholy-Nagy, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Leon Trotsky to name but a few.
His struggles with bi-polar disorder, his relationships with composers, musicians and critics, his successes and failures. His artistic approach to artists as dissimilar as Bach and Weill. HIs hatred of the conveyor belt repertory system.
Above all he was a deeply serious musician with a robust and coherent vision of what he worked to achieve. And yet a man accused amongst other things of cultural Bolshevism by his adversaries.
The only negative is that volume 1. ends in 1933 when Klemperer flees Germany seeking safety from Nazi persecution. I picked up a used copy of this book up for a few quid. But volume 2. is scarce and commands a much higher price.
So I can't read about his subsequent adventures in the USA and Budapest nor his eventual rehabilitation in the 1950's as the conductor of Walter Legge's Philharmonia "the Rolls Royce of British orchestras". This is truly a great shame. A fascinating book about a remarkable person.
Whilst this narrative is partly true, it doesn't provide a comprehensive idea of what war means to all of its participants. We are led to believe that there are winners and losers. I disagree. But what does it mean to be on the losing side? How does it actually feel? This is impossible to understand if you're an Englishman of any age and this is exactly why it interests me.
And so I have over time developed an interest in German history and culture. Which is of course a very big subject and gives me plenty of opportunities for increasing my knowledge and understanding.
In recent years alongside jazz, I've begun to enjoy classical music and of course because of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms this has become another rewarding German road for me to walk along. Hence I picked up Otto Klemperer's biography.)
Heyworth's biography was exactly what a non-musician with an interest in social history would have asked for. Then again so was Otto Klemperer's life.
Born to an assimilated Jewish mother from a wealthy and successful Hamburg family and a father with much stronger religious background from Austro Hungarian Prague via Breslau. Both parents were musical. His mother played piano and his father sang and at home Otto grew up listening to them perform Schubert's lieder etc.
His early career was spent in musical theatre repertory, with positions at a number of a provincial opera houses. Despite my efforts to acquire an interest in opera, the art form continues to evade me. And yet this operatic apprenticeship was fascinating.
Klemperer spent most of WWI at the Strasbourg Opera house, 30 miles behind the lines, putting on patriotic productions of Mahler with military musicians in the orchestra and with much begging and borrowing. Once again here is the topic of war from the "other side".
Later in Cologne he converts to Catholicism. Cologne being a centre of German Catholicism coupled with his immersion in the religious music of Bach and Beethoven, his was a "natural" conversion and certainly nothing to do with either anti-Semitic persecution or a desire for assimilation.
He marries a gentile who he then discovers has an illegitimate daughter who she had been passing off as her younger sister. And yet the marriage was very strong, although his wife's relationship with his mother was always somewhat strained.
He conducts very few concerts at this stage of his career and even once he moves to Berlin as director of the Kroll Theatre he mostly works on operatic productions.
During the period of the Weimar Republic, The Kroll Theatre became a political and cultural football. And it is here that Heywood's account of the complex social, cultural and political situation confronting Klemperer, comes alive. It may not have been his intention to hang a part of the Weimar story around Klemperer's shoulders but that nevertheless is what he achieved. It reminds me of two similarly structured biographies that succeed by harnessing the individual's story within the shifting historical sands that surround him. I suspect that Tolstoy would have approved of all three.
Klemperer is of course the star of the show. A man who worked and came into contact with a plethora of the good and the great. George Grosz, László Moholy-Nagy, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Leon Trotsky to name but a few.
His struggles with bi-polar disorder, his relationships with composers, musicians and critics, his successes and failures. His artistic approach to artists as dissimilar as Bach and Weill. HIs hatred of the conveyor belt repertory system.
Above all he was a deeply serious musician with a robust and coherent vision of what he worked to achieve. And yet a man accused amongst other things of cultural Bolshevism by his adversaries.
The only negative is that volume 1. ends in 1933 when Klemperer flees Germany seeking safety from Nazi persecution. I picked up a used copy of this book up for a few quid. But volume 2. is scarce and commands a much higher price.
So I can't read about his subsequent adventures in the USA and Budapest nor his eventual rehabilitation in the 1950's as the conductor of Walter Legge's Philharmonia "the Rolls Royce of British orchestras". This is truly a great shame. A fascinating book about a remarkable person.
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