Burial services will be held at the Jewish cemetery in Zurich tomorrow for Otto Klemperer, who died in his home in Zurich Friday at the age of 88. The conductor, regarded as one of the century’s foremost interpreters of Beethoven and other German masters, was born Jewish but converted to Roman Catholicism at the time of his marriage in 1919. He later reverted to Judaism and became a citizen of Israel in 1970.
Klemperer was born in Breslau and achieved musical fame early in his career. The advent of the Nazis forced him to flee Germany and in 1934 he came to the United States. In 1939 he underwent surgery for a brain tumor and his conducting career remained in hiatus until the mid-1960s. Klemperer led the London Philharmonic Orchestra for 14 years.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
