Scope and Content Note
Otto Klemperer is known primarily for his artistry as a conductor, particularly of contemporary music and operas during the 1920s and 1930s, and of orchestral music by Beethoven, Bruckner, Mozart, and Mahler. He is less well-known for his compositions, which include symphonies, string quartets, songs, piano solos, choral works, an opera, and arrangements.
The "Music" series includes holograph scores or sketches of most of Klemperer's published and unpublished compositions, as well as copyists' and printed instrumental parts or scores, some with his emendations or annotations. The collection also includes the German texts for many poems written by Goethe, Heine, and others that Klemperer set to music. In addition, his arrangements of works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart and others are represented by holograph, copyists' and printed scores. This series also contains music manuscripts and copyists' scores written by Klemperer's parents, his wife, and other composers. In addition, there is a selection of printed music scores from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. Many items contain Klemperer's notations.
The "Family Papers" series consists of genealogies with family trees, letters, news clippings and other information about Otto Klemperer’s ancestors from the nineteenth century. It also contains information on more recent Klemperer family members.
The "Correspondence" series contains a small amount of letters regarding specific pieces of music, transactions with publishing companies, and donations of Klemperer materials to various educational institutions.
The "Writings" series includes lectures and speeches by Klemperer; articles and anecdotes about him; and interviews he gave from 1914 to 1981. Klemperer wrote about musicians and composers, including Bartók, Berg, Bruckner, Hindemith, Mahler, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Wagner, and Zemlinsky, many whose works he conducted throughout his career. In addition, he wrote about the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic Choir, the conductor Toscanini, the Kroll Opera, and topics such as conducting by memory as opposed to with a score, contemporary music, and working for art’s sake, among other subjects. The materials written about Klemperer include anecdotes and articles in various languages, translations of Russian articles, and transcripts of broadcasts and film scripts. The interviews with Klemperer were used in European and Canadian radio broadcasts and in the film made of his life by Philo Bregstein.
The "Legal and Financial Papers" series contains inquiries made through the Freedom of Information Act about U. S. government surveillance of Klemperer during the years after World War II. It also contains his and family members' citizenship certificates and passports, income tax returns, insurance policies, and correspondence with lawyers.
The "Kroll Opera" series deals with Klemperer's leadership of the Staatsoper am Platz der Republik in Berlin, also known as the Kroll Oper. His tenure there, from 1927 to 1931, marks a controversial period in his career. At the same time, it solidified his reputation as a conductor and musical director. This series contains original and photocopied newspaper clippings, articles, and reviews of Kroll Opera productions, of concerts Klemperer conducted with the Berlin Staatsoper Kapelle Orchester, and commentaries on specific works that were performed at the opera house. In addition, there are black and white photographs of the interior and exterior of the Kroll Opera and black and white and color photographic reproductions of set designs for productions such as Fidelio, Die Zauberflöte, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Petrouska, Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, among others. The series also includes programs from different opera productions and orchestra concerts; radio transcripts from Südwest Radio and West German Radio, spanning 1961-1962; a doctoral dissertation on the Berlin State Opera from 1918-1931 by John Sargent Rockwell; and numerous reviews of works Klemperer performed at the Kroll, including Hindemith’s Cardillac, Fidelio, Oedipus Rex, Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Schoenberg’s Erwartung, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, among others.
The "Clippings" series includes photocopies of news clippings, press releases, articles, and typescripts about Klemperer’s various conducting engagements, mostly in the United States. They date from 1926 to 1972.
The "Programs" series contains original programs as well as photocopies and typescripts of programs for various Klemperer concerts. The programs cover different orchestras which Klemperer conducted, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra from 1933 to 1939.
The "Iconography" series includes an assortment of black and white photographs from different time periods of Klemperer's life and four photograph albums, two of which consist of black and white photographs of Klemperer alone or conducting, from 1919 to 1969; and two albums that contain black and white photographs of Klemperer conducting in London from 1970 to 1971. An additional album contains original watercolors of set designs for the Wiesbaden Opera.
The "Miscellaneous Printed Matter" series includes a variety of articles, books, programs, an opera libretto, and photocopies of encyclopedia entries. In addition, it contains an article on Gustav Mahler by Max Brod; Erwin Jacobi’s article on Albert Schweitzer and Richard Wagner; several items by Albert Schweitzer; and Lipman-Wulf’s article on his sculpture Otto Klemperer Conducting.
In 1968, Philo Bregstein made a German-language documentary film on Klemperer’s life and work. Klemperer is interviewed in the film, and at times portions of the interview are used as narration. The background materials used for making this film are part of the "Klemperer Film Materials" series. This series also contains the typewritten film script with emendations; photocopies and typescripts of statements by and about Klemperer; and interviews with Klemperer by Bregstein and Klemperer's biographer, Peter Heyworth. The interviews with Klemperer include discussions about Ernst Bloch, Pierre Boulez, Hans Curjel, Paul Dessau, Klemperer's children Werner and Lotte, Rafael Kubelik, Lotte Lehman, Helmuth Plessner, and H. H. Stuckenschmidt, among others.
This series also contains an extensive amount of production materials for the film. Included are photographic prints, contact prints, slides, and negatives, some original and some reproduced from various European archives, all very loosely organized. These materials pertain to various subjects, including Otto Klemperer, depictions of the Weimar Republic, Germany during the Nazi period, World War II and the effects of the war, German cultural life from the turn of the century to the post World War II period, various artists, and European and American cities where Klemperer lived and worked. Index cards identify the subject matter of the photoprints.
The "Books" series contains 109 books from Klemperer's collection. Books were retained if they had annotations by Otto Klemperer and his daughter Lotte or if material was laid into the book. Biographies of Otto Klemperer and books which contain references to him include annotations by Lotte Klemperer and errata sheets clarifying inaccuracies in the text. The original laid-in material and photocopies of the annotated pages from the books have been filed separately along with a complete list of books. Books annotated by Otto Klemperer include Mozart: sein Charakter sein Werk by Einstein, Goethes Briefe an Frau von Stein bu Goethe, Hundejahre by Gunter Grass, Max Henning’s translation of Der Koran, Ethik by Spinoza, Vom Ewigen im Menschen by Scheler, Rösch’s translation of Das neue Testament, Die Unschuld des Werdens by Nietzsche; der Nachlass, and Mayer’s translation of Der babylonische Talmud. In addition, there are books inscribed and signed by Anna Freud, Ernst Bloch, Igor Stravinsky, Helmuth Plessner, and Robert Craft.
A bronze bust of Otto Klemperer was donated to the Library of Congress by the sculptress Anna Mahler Joseph and now resides in the Whittall Pavilion in the Thomas Jefferson Building.
The Appendix at the end of the finding aid includes an index linking the original folder numbers created by Lotte Klemperer to the present box and folder locations of the material in the Otto Klemperer Archive.
William Nelson, Technician
Wilda Heiss, Music Specialist