SITTING AT AN AWARDS DINNER next to the leader of a period-instrument orchestra, we fell to talking about conductors, whom she generally disparaged. I asked what she remembered of her early years in the Philharmonia Orchestra. Suddenly, her eyes glistened. “We had Otto Klemperer,” she said. “Nobody ever made us sound like that.”I heard a similar appreciation from Sir Simon Rattle, no respecter of old lions. “Try as I might,” said Rattle when conducting the Philharmonia, “I could not get that Klemperer sound out of their fingers.”
Klemperer died 50 years ago this July, aged 88, cared for by his daughter Lotte at their Swiss home. Lotte, a captivating character in her own right, died there 20 years ago this month. A Warner Classics box of Klemperer orchestral recordings has…
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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 2023