Otto Klemperer was as monumental as his music-making. At 6 foot 5, he wore a look of granitic intensity. Seat him in front of a camera, and he assumed the gaze of a raptor staring down a field mouse.
An associate, friend, and disciple of Gustav Mahler, Klemperer championed new works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Hindemith. He tolerated no coughing or sneezing from his audience. When the New York Philharmonic failed to offer him a music directorship after 14 weeks as guest conductor, he fired off a scathing missive: “That the society did not reengage me is the strongest offense, the sharpest insult to me as artist, which I can imagine… This non-reengagement will have very bad results not only… in New York but in the whole world.” He settled in London, where a new orchestra, the Philharmonia, was created specifically for him.
Klemperer’s power of indestructibility is legendary. No one and nothing could stop him. Not Hitler, not the U.S. State Department (that refused to renew his visa), not even a brain tumor. He made Rasputin look like a mayfly.
His catalogue of misfortunes would have destroyed a lesser man. He suffered from severe cyclothymic bipolar disorder. He underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor “the size of a small orange.” When placed in an institution, he escaped. Later, he took a severe spill, requiring him to conduct from a chair. When he set himself on fire (while smoking in bed), he tried to douse the flames with spirits of camphor.
I’m not sure what kind of woman would have the courage to get near him, but he managed to sire Werner Klemperer (a.k.a. Colonel Klink). On one occasion, Georg Solti knocked at the door of his dressing room, and when Klemperer answered, he was in his boxers and covered in lipstick.
Klemperer’s career was capped by a glorious Indian summer that spanned 20 years. This juggernaut of the podium finally ground to halt at the age 88.
Like the man, his recordings are built to last. We’ll celebrate one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors with a few of them, on his birthday.
First, on today’s Noontime Concert, it’s a double-dollop of Baroque music courtesy of Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS. Dan McCarthy, Baroque viola, and Dongsok Shin, harpsichord, will perform music by Johann Gottlieb Graun, from a program titled “The Emergent Viola.” Then Vox Aquarum will offer “Anthems and Devotions by Henry Purcell.”
These performances were captured at GEMS’ Midtown Concerts series, held at the chapel of St. Bartholomew’s Church, 325 Park Avenue, in New York City. Free concerts take place at St. Bart’s on Thursdays at 1:15 p.m. For more information, visit GEMS’ website, gemsny.org, and click on the events calendar.
We’ll be verklempt for Klemp – and partial to Purcell – from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
