Joseph Krips

 

 

A great conductor who was to fall foul of US officaldom was the half-Jewish Josef Krips. Having managed to survive the war in Vienna with the utmost difficulty he has hauled out of a cellar by the Russians and asked to re-establish the Vienna Opera and Vienna Philharmonic. This he did brilliantly and was invited to conduct in America. Arriving at Ellis Island he was asked if he had ever been a member of the Nazi or Communist party. He answered that the only party he would subscribe to was the Mozart party. For this he and his wife were incarcerated on Ellis Island and eventually sent back to Europe. Years later Harry Truman's daughter attended a concert of Krips with the LSO and invited him to her box at the Festival Hall in the interval. In that way, Krips knew that only then would it be OK for him to apply again for a visa to enter the USA.

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