Otto Klemperer's relationship with Gustav Mahler was brief in years but enormously important in Klemperer's life. Klemperer later became one of the great interpreters of Mahler himself. His lifelong advocacy of Mahler's music is partly explained by the fact that he had learned Mahler's conception of conducting directly from the composer.
Klemperer met Mahler in Berlin in 1905, when he was only about twenty. Oskar Fried was conducting Mahler's Resurrection 2th Symphony, and the young Klemperer was put in charge of the offstage brass. Mahler attended a rehearsal and was dissatisfied with the way Klemperer had interpreted the offstage music. Klemperer recalled Mahler telling him, in effect, that although the score was said very loudly, the distant orchestra had to sound extremely soft because of its position. Klemperer adjusted the playing, and Mahler subsequently told him, “Very good.”
That seemingly small encounter made a tremendous impression on the young musician.
Klemperer subsequently heard Mahler conduct his Third Symphony in Berlin in 1907, and this was apparently the decisive experience. Klemperer later said that he became fascinated not merely by Mahler's compositions but by Mahler the conductor. From then on, he wanted above all to become a conductor himself and to work under Mahler.
There was also a personal meeting in Vienna in 1907. Klemperer had made a piano reduction of the Second Symphony and played it to Mahler. Mahler was impressed that the young man had undertaken such a task and initially suggested that Klemperer was an excellent pianist. Klemperer replied, essentially, that what he needed was Mahler's recommendation to become a conductor.
Mahler gave him exactly that.
Mahler wrote Klemperer a remarkable testimonial.
“Gustav Mahler recommends Herr Klemperer as an outstanding musician…”
The recommendation emphasized that despite his youth Klemperer was already experienced and suited to a conducting career.
It was not merely a ceremonial letter. It changed Klemperer's career. On Mahler's recommendation, Klemperer obtained his position at the German Theater in Prague in 1907. Later, Mahler also helped him obtain the conducting position in Hamburg.
Klemperer treasured Mahler's little recommendation card for the rest of his life.
The relationship went beyond admiration. Klemperer was present during rehearsals of Mahler's works and became part of the circle of younger conductors and musicians around him.
A particularly revealing episode occurred in Prague in 1908, during preparations for the premiere of Mahler's Seventh Symphony. Klemperer, Bruno Walter and others were around Mahler while he obsessively revised the score and orchestral parts. Mahler's wife Alma remembered the young musicians helping with corrections. Klemperer remembered it somewhat differently: Mahler would take all the orchestral material home every evening and make the corrections himself, refusing their assistance.
Klemperer was also involved in the preparations for the premiere of the Eighth Symphony in 1910, Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand.
And what did Klemperer think of Mahler as a conductor?.
This is perhaps the most interesting part.
Klemperer's recollections portray Mahler as intensely precise but not mechanically literal. For Mahler, the notation on the page was only part of the musical reality. Klemperer remembered, for example, Mahler explaining the subtle rhythmic flexibility (rubato) in the second movement of the Second Symphony. The important thing was not simply to obey the written notes but to understand the musical thought behind them.
Klemperer later became one of the great interpreters of Mahler himself. His lifelong advocacy of Mahler's music is partly explained by the fact that he had learned Mahler's conception of conducting directly from the composer.
There is an especially poignant aspect to this: Klemperer lived until 1973, more than sixty years after Mahler's death. He continued writing and speaking about him throughout his life. His collected writings, Klemperer on Music, contain numerous reflections on Mahler, whom he regarded with particular respect and as a formative influence.
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