Klemperer

 

Why this concentration on that particular conductor? I think it's because there is no one these days who has the same overarching integrity.

I bought 'Klemperer on Music - Shavings from a Musician's Workbench' recently. I can't think why I never read it before. The following passage sums up what makes him special in my view. He is at a performance of Gluck's Orfeo in 'little' Dessau;

'A truly encouraging example, and evidence of the truth that he who grasps the whole will recognise and rule the right in all its proportions...a musical exploit of such beauty and correctness as I nowhere else have met at any theatre.'

I was fortunate enough to attend Klemperer's performance of Mahler's 9^th with the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Paris in April 1967. In his book he writes that the 9^th is his greatest symphony. That performance embodied exactly what K  meant by 'he who grasps the whole...' I had never heard the symphony before but it came out as a single artefact almost visible in all its aspects and in no way episodic. Such was the integrity of vision.

Of course this was easier to mainain in live performance than in studio recordings but I think K did so to a great extent. A big exception for me is the live recording of Fidelio from Covent Garden versus the EMI studio recording.

I see 'Fidelio' features a lot in 'Klemperer on Music.' I was interested to read

'There are few words to describe the quartet... what happened there? A miracle. The climax of the music of Fidelio is in this quartet. Beethoven never reached this climax again (even in the strongest of his works).'

ROH Lohengrin

Talking of recordings never made, my most regretted would be Klemperer's 'Lohengrin' from Covent Garden with Konya in the title role. In this period I think he must have been in a manic phase because my abiding memory is of him throwing himself about like a 20-something in the pit producing the most vivid and dramatic performance immaginable. Sadly the Budapest performance is nothng like it. The BBC failed to broadcast any of these Covent Garden performances and no 'private' recording has yet come to light. Even Lord Herewood doesn't seem to have taped it. But I live in hope.

Here's a Klemperer story I like very much. Klemperer was interested in Webern but despite Webern's fervent hopes that he would take up performing his music, it didn't happen until one day when Klemperer did indeed programme a work of his (I forget which). It didn't go well and they became a bit estranged. Their final meeting occurred when while conversing with eachother Klemperer suddenly asked Webern 'What do you think of Puccini?.' That was the end of it.