Last week in Manhattan, at considerable personal expense, after great personal effort, a musician conducted an orchestra to prove to the world that he is not crazy. There have been worse reasons for a concert. Many people suppose that all musicians are more or less wacky.* But hulking, six-and-a-half-foot Otto Klemperer, exiled German conductor, had lately been pictured as something worse.
Conductor Klemperer, able musician but a Jew, was ousted from the Berlin State Opera in 1933, became leader of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Two autumns ago he was given a leave of absence after undergoing a brain tumor operation, which left...
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