Klemperer in Los Angeles

If towering Otto Klemperer felt last spring that like Job he had been afflicted beyond reason, he must have been in good measure repaid when he walked on to the stage in the Los Angeles Auditorium last week and 5,000 Californians stood up to welcome him as conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra. Because he was a Jew, Conductor Klemperer was pommeled last spring by a band of Nazi youths.

Adolf Hitler repudiated his Berlin State Opera contract which had four more years to run (TIME, June 19). Fortunately for Klemperer and for Los Angeles. William Andrews Clark Jr. was aware of the big German's capabilities. Mr. Clark had supported the Los Angeles Orchestra for 14 years on the copper fortune left him by his father, the late fierce-whiskered Senator from Montana. Last spring he announced that he could do so for only one more season. Klemperer needed a job; Los Angeles needed a strong conductor to build up public subscriptions.

Last week both Klemperer and Los Angeles appeared to have found what they wanted. Klemperer, 48, so tall (6 ft. 4 in.) that he uses no podium, gave stirring vitality to Bach, Stravinsky, Beethoven. He was as exciting to watch as the music he made, quivering his left hand like a violinist until he got the volume he wanted, rocking back and forth for a gentle andante, jerking his head so violently for climaxes that his glasses kept sliding down his nose. Mr. Clark admires Klemperer so much that he hurried back from Europe for last week's concert, personally introduced the new conductor to the orchestramen, took him into his home to live. Mr. Clark's enthusiasm aroused nearly as much hope in Los Angeles last week as Conductor Klemperer's first performance. It was whispered about that he might change his mind and go on providing, in part at least, for the orchestra he founded and subsidized to the tune of some $200,000 a year.

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