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KLEMPERER ON MUSIC: Shavings from a Musician's Workbench. Edited by: Martin Anderson with a Foreward by Pierre Boulez.   Published by Toccata Press £12:95 264 pp ISBN 0 907689 13 2

 


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Always an enigmatic and highly controversial personality, Otto Klemperer was unquestionably one of the greatest musical interpreters of all time. He was a profound interpreter of all the classical repertoire but was also an avowed modernist in his youthful days with an astonishing array of music performed and premiered in those heady Kroll years. This fine volume of essays and writings shows Klemperer at his finest and most fans who will have read Peter Heyworth's magnificent biography will recall most incidents with almost luscious pleasure. Most of the narrative is strikingly matter-of-fact and lean, but that was Klemperer. A man of few words, he was never wont to say anything more than was entirely necessary. Reading through most of the chapters, one is struck by the absolute modesty and humility of this great man, especially in the matter-of-fact way in which he describes his heroic stance at the Kroll. The personal recollections are strikingly matter-of-fact and unceremonious with facts stated as if they were the most ordinary things in the world. One is also given a window look into German political aegis of those days with an ever increasing current of anti-Semitism ruining musical circles for ever. Klemperer talks fondly amongst others of Hindemith, Krenek and Schoenberg although his frankness in his lack of understanding of the latter's music is understandable. The chapters which are of obvious interest are those dedicated to Bach, Beethoven and of course, Mahler! Klemperer's reverence for Bach's music was always one of his idolatries and he speaks with a certain loftiness about the composer which is absolutely disarming. One is also enthralled by the deep analysis of 'Fidelio' and Beethoven's symphonies, the Fifth is discussed with a certain terse detail that makes it highly interesting. Mahler is 'the key that was to open every door'. Every time I read the story of Klemperer watching Mahler walk down the same path that he used to trod as a boy, shivers travel down my spine. Klemperer's views on Mahler were absolutely unflinching, in his opinion he was the greatest symphonist and conductor of his time, indeed perhaps of all time. Articles on Mozart, Mendelssohn and other composers are similarly revealing of Klemperer's wit and varying opinions. Another interesting and perhaps underrated characteristic is Klempere's ability to make a case for an ailing orchestra, as he did with zeal in his younger years in America and in his later years in London. Incidentally the only reference to Walter Legge is the short but famous exchange regarding the Mozartian piano rehearsals that brought about the rift that almost killed the Philharmonia. An icy wit runs through most of the writing, none the more obvious than in the answer to a rather thoughtless question on Beethoven! Various speeches and introductory talks are also pervaded with an honest-to-goodness directness but a sense of whimsical sardonity is also apparent.An indispensable feature of the collection is its inclusion of a list of all Klemperer's, to my mind the first volume on the conductor/composer to do so. Summing up, this collection is outstanding in its wide and traversing appeal, and most of all a monument to one of the greatest conductors of the century.

Reviewer

Gerald Fenech

Reviewer

Gerald Fenech

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