Saturday 17 March 2012

Klemperer & Mahler

I have embarked on a re-read of Peter Heyworth's two-volume biography of Otto Klemperer. What a long, interesting and turbulent life he had! I was particularly interested in Heyworth's information that Klemperer -- who knew and worked with Gustav Mahler and admired him enormously -- only really took enthusiastically to Mahler's second, fourth and ninth symphonies, and to Das Lied von der Erde, all of which he programmed and recorded often. After fifty years acquaintance with Mahler's major works, this is also my impression. Good to have Otto as an ally; I sometimes thought there must be something deficient in my musical make-up.

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