Full Description
A kaleidoscopic, fast-paced and well-researched film about one of this century's great visionary conductors. Director Philo Bregstein introduces us to Klemperer's colleagues on the European art, music and intellectual scene and conveys a vivid sense of the tumultuous times in which Klemperer lived. A protégé of Mahler, Otto Klemperer produced everything from classic symphonies to avant-garde operas inspired by the Bauhaus. Fleeing Hitler in 1933, he became a guest conductor on four continents over the next 30 years, despite suffering from a brain tumor and stroke at the height of his career. In Budapest after the war, the Communist Party repressed his preference for Schoenberg; but he was also driven from the United States because of McCarthyism. This avant-garde artist and Jew, this man without a country, continued to conduct and record until the age of 86. A rare selection of archival films include Klemperer conducting Carmenn East Berlin in 1949 and a 1964 BBC film of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Silver Medal, 1985 International Film Festival, New York.
