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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Reviewer Gerald Fenech
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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.