Nothing annoys Conductor Otto Klemperer quite so much as applause. He takes his bows almost grudgingly, his craggy face expressionless, his eyes apparently unseeing. To Klemperer, musicmaking is almost a mystic rite upon which an audience should never intrude. Last week Klemperer's annoyance was severe: in the U.S. for the first time in nine years, he led the Philadelphia Orchestra in Manhattan's Carnegie Hall—and roused the crowd to an ovation the like of which conductors rarely hear.
Now boss of London's Philharmonia Orchestra, Klemperer is regarded as the master of the 19th century romantics —Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner. Last week's concert demonstrated why....
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