OTTO KLEMPERER PORTRAIT (1885-1973), MD 1933-1939

It was as an immigrant fleeing Hitler’s Germany in 1933 that Otto Klemperer became the fourth music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Klemperer, a student of piano and theory, assistant to Mahler, deputy to Pfitzner and accomplished conductor with multiple worldwide orchestras began his tenure in the 1933-34 season. Klemperer’s six years with the Los Angeles Philharmonic were in many ways an extension or expansion of the repertory Rodzinski had established with the orchestra, but with the inclusion of more works by Haydn and Mozart and other composers of the eighteenth century with the works of nineteenth century and living composers.