Klemperer Triumphs Over III-health

Press, Volume C, Issue 29508, 9 May 1961, Page 9

Klemperer Triumphs Over III-health

A gaunt giant of a man has emerged tn an olympian old age as a supreme interpreter of great music.

Otto Klemperer—7B this month—draws audiences of test match dimensions wherever he goes by his sheer musical genius. This fact was demonstrated recently when it was announced that he was to conduct and produce Beethoven’s opera, “Fidelio’’ at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Within hours of the first announcement, Klemperer fans were demanding seats. Soon every seat in the auditorium for every performance was sold out. More than 20.000 people wanting tickets were turned away by the management at Covent Garden and "house full" notices were put up. What audiences have seen before the curtain has risen each time might have been anticipated. Frail Figure , A frail figure, usually assisted by an attendant, has painfully hobbled on to the rostrum. Supporting himself heavily against the conductor’s stand, Klemperer has waited for the traditional opening applause to fade away. Then, propped up against a special chair provided for him, Klemperer would raise his arms until they were fully outstretched. As the first strains of the overture emerged the conductor became a man transformed.

Half a century has seemed to fall away from him as he vigorously spurred on the orchestra and cast to a magical performance. This charmed life has continued with one interval a night for three and a half hours With the music—and the thunderous applause—finished. Klemperer has returned to his shell. Attendants have reappeared and he has shuffled away backstage. Struggled for Years Thin, with his 6ft 4in frame making him seem almost emaciated. Klemperer has struggled against illhealth for years now in his almost consuming drive to make music.

His physical ordeal began in 1939 when an operation for a brain tumour left him paralysed down one side. Later he broke a leg. For a long time he got around first in a wheelchair and then on crutches. But his music was barely inter-

rupted. Two operations followed, and all his concerts had to be conducted sitting down. Then in 1955 during a broadcast of "Don Giovanni” which he was conducting for Cologne Radio he became so roused at one point that he stood unaided. Doctors said it was a miracle. There was no medical explanation forthcoming. Mellowed After this strange event, orchestral players and audiences noticed that Klemperer was moving more easily and had become stronger in body. His previously forbidding personality began to mellow. But his physical suffering was not yet over. Two years ago he dropped off to sleep in bed at his home in Zurich without stubbing out a cigarette. The bed clothes caught fire, and Klemperer was badly burnt. Once more it seemed that he would never again be able to conduct in public. But his astonishing urge to make music saved Klemperer yet again. Within a few months of the Zurich

accident the name Klemperer was reappearing on concert programmes.

In one way or another this switchback type of existence has been the lot of Otto Klemperer ever since he was born in Breslau of Jewish parentage in 1885. It was Klemperer's work as director of the Kroll Opera in Berlin in the 1920’s that first brought him recognition as one of Germany’s great conductors. New works and musical experiments he brought to the concert hall shocked and delighted Berliners in turn. In 1933. this unique venture collapsed. Klemperer was dismissed by the Nazis. He escaped a worse fate by fleeing to America. There he spent six years as director of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, returning to Europe after World War 11. Autocrat

Perhaps no conductor in the world has acquired a reputation for being more autocratic and relentless in the quest to get what he wants.

Many times his ruthless seeking for perfection, along with his peppery comments, have provoked hostility on both sides of the rostrum. Orchestral players especially have found cause to fear him.

“Good.” said Klemperer (according to one story), as he addressed a flautist. Astounded by such lavish praise, the orchestra burst into applause. The maestro glared back, angry at the disturbance. “It was not all that good.” he snapped.— (Associated Newspapers Feature Service).