, Saturday. 20.5.67

at 8.45 p.m.

Binyanei Ha'uma

Jerusalem

SPECIAL CONCERT

-OTTO KLEMPERER~

with thl

"KOL YISRAEL"

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

UPON THE GRACIOUS SUGGESTION OF THE~

CONDUCTOR Dr. OT:rO KLEMPERER,

ALL PROCEEDS OF THlS CONCERT GO TO THE .

HEBREW UNIVERSITY, JERUSALEM.

•

•

ISRAE.L · W~LOOMES

Once upon a time - it s~s incredible it is less than forty years ago ~ there was a great city in which four great music

,institutions . were · permanently directed

·by Jour ' great musical personalities.

.Each had a well-planned artistic pro­

·.gramms of hiB own, each had his own 8p!;*)ial public; and there were no jet

p1anes yet to tral;lsportthem to another

.c:i.ty abnost every week of the year. The

public kn~wthat opera .andsymphony orchestra were in permanent hands; ope­

,ra ~nsemble6 'andSyII1phony orchestras each reflected the musical leanings and

'1!tyle of their own conductor who was

able to mould them and attain perfor­mances. of a unity and greatness that

only ' long-term ' hard work . can ever

' l;l(1hieve.

.1his. city., was Berlin. BiraNo W ALTERwas~usic' di:rector 01 the

. Staedtische, 0 p er a, Oharlottenburg.

WILHELM · FURTW AEN:'GLER was pennanent . oonduqOOI' of . the Berlin

,; Philharmonic Orchestra. ' E RIO H

·XL EI B EN was at the head of the

Staatsoper Upter . den . LitMen. OTTO KLEMPERER was musical director of

the KroHoper, · the State Opera's second house. Great music could be heard in

each of these houses then, but it was Klemperer's opera and Klemperer's

symphony orchestra that presented the

most interesting and most daring per­

formances. His staging of standard mu­

sic dramas and his premieres of new con­

temporary works were most widely

discussed and disputed by public and press alike and Klemperer never permit-

OTTO ' KLEMPERER .\

ted adverse criticism to influence his

own set 'artistic policy . . He searched for

the deeper meaning in the musical

masterworks he cherished most and he

·gave a hearing to each and every compo­

ser of the time who had something origi­

nal to say. His fanatic search for artistic

· truth was in fact a heritage from the

composer, and conductor who had the

greatest impact on his musical develop­

ment - GUSTAV MAHLER, who had

· first recommended the 22 -year - old

·.Klemperer to the director of the

~'German Opera House" in Prague in

1907, the young maestro's first important

musical job.

· Klemperer was born in Br8!llau on May

;14th, 1885. Ile grew up in Hamburg and

studied music there, and in Frankfurt

and Berlin. After three years in Prague M accepted· positions in Hamburg . (1910

-1914), Strassbourg (1914--.-1917), 00-logne (1917-1924), and Wiesbaden

.( 1924-1927). In the twenties, his fame

spread abroad and · he was · invited to guest-conduct in the U.S.A., in South

America, RU88ia and England.

It was · in 1927 that he became musical director of the Kroll Opera House where

he soon pr8!l6nted a repertory of more than 40 operas, standard and modern,

the most exciting works being Janacek's "From the House of the Dead", Schoen­

berg's ''Erwartung'' and "Glueckliche

Hand", Strawinskv's "Oedipus Rex" and

Hindemith's "Oardillac" and "N eues vom Tage". Since 1929 he was also the successor of Siegfried Ochsas conductor

of the Berlin Philharmonic Choir, which took part in many memorable perform­

ances under his baton - :flirat and fore­most the Passions of J. S. Bach.

Klemperer enjoyed the support of Pro­fessor Leo Kesten:berg, - then Director of the Department of Music Education at the Prussian Ministry of Culture -particulary when the artistic line of the KroiI House met with vehement hosti­lity of the reactionaries, and politiool intrigue was also evident. In 1931, the

reactionary forces succeeded in foroing the closure of the House; one can never forget the scenes that Friday evening when the curta:in fell on Klemperer's wonderful performance of Mozart's "Figaro" and a capacity audience pas­sionately protested the disappearance of Berlin's most interesting repertory opera

house.

O ,tto Klemperer conducted e.t the

State 0 per a H 0 use till 1933" when he was forced to leave Germany for the U. S. A. to become conductor of the Los A n gel e s Symphony Orchestra; in 1938 he reorganised the Pittsburgh Symphony. Arter World War II he returned to Europe. Among his

period at the Budapest Opel"a (1947-

1950). Since then he has tmvelled widely and nmde many beautiful recordings of opera, oratorio, and symphonic works, in

particular for E.M.I. Records, with the New Philharmonia Orchestm of London, which is regarded as "Otto Klemperer's Own". two small volumes of reminisce­

nces were also published, and Klamperer composed choml and instrumental music. He is an Hon. Doctor of Law of the Occidental College and of the Universi­

ty of California, Los-Angele6.

For all those who remember the great performances in the Berlin of the

'twenties and early 'thirties, who heard Klemperer conduct in Europe, after the

war and met him in Israel in 1951, when he conducted a smaIl Kol-Israel Orche­

stra for the first time in Jerusalem and Ramat-Gan, the concert <txrnight is a particularly exciting and joyful occasion.

In Otto Klemperer we welcome a conduc­

tor who coUnts with the few realy greaJt

musical personalities of our time, a

musician whose great ambi,tion and artistic aim is to make us hear the inner voices inherent in great music.

nDrogramme

OVERTURE t'FREISCHt:"'ETZ"

SYMPHONY NO.8 IN B-MINOR (ilUNFINISHED")

Allegro moderato

Andante con moto

- I n t e r m i s si 0 n -

ADAGIO AND FUGUE ~N C-MINOR, K. 546

SYMPHONY NO. 41 IN C-¥AJ"OR ("JUPITER"), K. 551

Allegro vivace

Andante cantabile

Menuet

Molto allegro

WEBER

S OR U B ER'Tf

MOZART

MOZART