num_pages: 475
description: 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.
language: English
title: Otto Klemperer: Volume 1, 1885-1933: His Life and Times
titlecomplete: Otto Klemperer: Volume 1, 1885-1933: His Life and Times
characters: Otto Klemperer, Gustav Mahler
genres: Music
ratings_count: 15
series: Otto Klemperer
publisher: Cambridge University Press