Advertisement

KLEMPERER TRIBUTES SET

Share

On Tuesday, the 100th birthday of Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) will be marked internationally in London, where Carlo Maria Giulini will conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra in Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” at a Klemperer memorial concert in Royal Festival Hall.

In Los Angeles, KUSC is noting the conductor’s anniversary with a monthlong tribute. Centerpiece of the celebration is a 60-minute BBC documentary on Klemperer, hosted by David Wheeler, to be broadcast today at 4 p.m. This morning at 8, KUSC will play a recording of Klemperer’s performance of Bach’s “St. Matthew” Passion.

Other Klemperer performances to be broadcast in the next three weeks: Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” Wednesday at 2 p.m.; Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam (1961), Thursday at 3:30 p.m.; Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” (with soloists Elisabeth Gruemmer and Hermann Prey), May 23 at 3:30 p.m.; Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis,” May 30 at 3 p.m.

Advertisement

KUSC executive producer David Letterman also promises drop-in recordings received too late for inclusion in the KUSC program guide will be “inserted when time permits” during this month. These late-arriving recordings include a number of performances not previously broadcast, e.g., early Klemperer recordings from the 1920s; music by Ravel, etc.

At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where Klemperer was music director from 1933 until 1939, no observance of Klemperer’s centennial has been planned, spokeswoman Norma Flynn told The Times last week, pointing out that Klemperer’s role in the orchestra’s history had been documented in the 87-page program book of the Philharmonic’s “Made in Los Angeles” minifestival in 1981.

From Florida, where he is narrating performances by the Florida Philharmonic of Honegger’s “King David” this week, actor Werner Klemperer, one of the late conductor’s two children, said he would be attending the Giulini concert in London with his sister, Lotte, on Tuesday.

He also mentioned a number of magazine articles noting the anniversary this month, as well as performances of Otto Klemperer’s own music--in his eighties, the conductor completed his canon of six symphonies, and wrote nine string quartets--in Israel, of which nation the conductor accepted citizenship in 1970.

MUSICAL MOVES: Violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who was born in San Francisco, has become an honorary British citizen, his New York agent reports. Menuhin, 69, received his naturalization papers in February but waited for a reception in his honor given by British Arts Minister Lord Gowrie on May first making the news public. Menuhin, who, according to his agent, has not renounced his American citizenship, has spent much of his life in Britain and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth 20 years ago. As a non-British national, he was not entitled to use his title. Now, he can call himself Sir Yehudi. . . . Varujan Kojian, formerly conductor of the Utah Symphony, has been named music director of the Santa Barbara Symphony. Though his tenure begins in October, Kojian will lead the final concerts of the orchestra’s 1984-85 season, May 19 and 21. Concurrently, Kojian joins the faculty at UC Santa Barbara, where he will conduct the university orchestra. According to symphony manager Peter Garnick, Kojian will commute to Santa Barbara from Salt Lake City, where he remains music director of Ballet West.

Advertisement