Otto Klemperer Biography: First Successes

In the spring of 1908 Mahler came to Prague, where he conducted a concert at the Czech Exhibition. He looked tanned and extremely fit. The concert consisted exclusively of popular works — the overtures to Smetana's Bartered Bride and Wagner's Tristan and Die Meistersinger, together with Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. I could only get to a rehearsal, but my one reaction afterwards was that one ought to abandon the profession unless one could conduct as Mahler did. In the Beethoven, he took the second part of the Allegretto at a slightly livelier pace than the main portion. It sounded like a new work altogether. I have never heard the climax of the Tristan prelude (which he naturally conducted without any increase in tempo) played with such emotional impact, and the same applied to the March in Die Meistersinger.

Otto Klemperer, Minor Recollections, London: Dennis Hobson 1964, pp. 17-18.

Prague 1907-1910 — Apprenticeship

Prague That proudly Slavic Prague, the city which Mozart loved, had not lost its knack for attracting the best talent of the German-speaking world was evidenced by the success of its German Theater. There, following in the footsteps of Nikisch and Bodanzky before him, Otto Klemperer arrived in 1907 to take up the post of conductor.

Otto and his sister Marianne at Stylt, 1908 His premiere with Der Freischütz earned critical praise:

This young man, whose firm hand and secure beat is apparent in the freshness and exactitude of the choruses, also proved himself as a conductor. Already in the overture the dark romantic breath of the adagio and a fiery allegro showed . . . that he has individuality.

Prague State Opera, former German Theater As junior conductor, Klemperer bore the brunt of the sweatshop conditions known as German repertory opera: every night another opera, and never adequately rehearsed. That his senior colleagues were given charge of the more significant works, while he was assigned the operettas and Spielopern, did nothing to improve his mood.

Mahler's visit to Prague in 1908 to conduct at an exhibition in honor of Franz Joseph's 60th anniversary as emperor was a welcome highlight. "My one reaction afterwards was that one should abandon the profession if one could not conduct as Mahler did. . . . Everything was absolutely natural. . . you felt that it could not be better and could not be otherwise."*

Klemperer's promotion to Second Conductor in 1909 after his friend and colleague Artur Bodanzky's abrupt departure for Mannheim brought him a share in the works in the German Theater's reportory closer to his heart — his passionately-conducted production of Lohengrin was especially praised — and more than his share of controversy.

Angelo Neumann That he was independent-minded where musical standards were concerned he'd made clear from the start. For his very first performance, he'd demanded, and received, an extra rehearsal. (Hence the Klempererism, "It's not always best to say 'yes' — it is sometimes best to say 'no.'") He even held a special rehearsal for the trumpeters responsible for a difficult Wagnerian fanfare in his apartment in the Divistrasse when his request to rehearse them in the German Theater was refused. (Hence his subsequent move to Pstrossgasse at the insistence of his neighbors.)

But his association with a music critic who criticized the standards of the German Theater while singling Klemperer out for praise was more than the theater's director, Angelo Neumann, could bear. Neumann insisted that Klemperer cease all contact with the critic. Klemperer refused. When Klemperer was subsequently fired, he turned to Mahler for help. "Grab Klemperer," Mahler telegraphed the opera house in Hamburg. Hamburg quickly obliged.