You were an associate, friend and disciple of Gustav Mahler. You championed new works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Hindemith. You stood 6-foot-6 and wore a look of granitic intensity. You tolerated no coughing or sneezing from your audience. You suffered from severe cyclothymic bipolar disorder. You answered the door to your dressing room in your boxers and covered in lipstick. You were horsewhipped at the Hamburg Opera for stealing a man’s wife (the soprano Elisabeth Schumann). You underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor “the size of a small orange.” You were placed in an institution, only to escape. You took a severe spill, requiring you to conduct from a chair. You set yourself on fire and tried to douse the flames with spirits of camphor. You sired the actor who became Colonel Klink. When you weren’t offered the music directorship of the New York Philharmonic, you fired off a scathing rebuke, then moved to London where a new orchestra (the Philharmonia) was founded for you. You embarked on a glorious Indian Summer that spanned 20 years. Somehow, incredibly, you made it to the age of 88. In all, you lived a life worthy of one of the 20th century’s great conductors.
Happy birthday, Otto Klemperer!
Klemperer in Philadelphia: I love how, as soon as this video gets taken down, somebody else just puts it right back up.
Live Bruckner from 1947, quite at variance with recordings of the elder Klemperer:
Klemp conducting Beethoven’s 7th at 85:
Good Klemperer documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqz-qUiCgbQ
“Klemperer the Immoralist”