Otto Klemperer conducts Arnold Schönberg (1938)
Später drängte ich ihn, so etwas wie eine Transkription zu schreiben, und er bearbeitete Brahms’ Klavier-Quartett in g-moll für volles Orchester – eine wundervolle Sache. Das ist kaum aufgeführt in Europa – so gut wie gar nicht. Ich würde es gerne noch mal machen. Man mag das Originalquartett gar nicht mehr hören, so schön klingt die Bearbeitung.
[Later I urged him to write something like a transcription and the did a treatment of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in g-minor for the full orchestra – a wonderful thing. It has hardly ever been performed in Europe – hardly at all. I would like to do it again. One doesn’t want to hear the original quartet after one has heard how beautiful his adaptation is. (ed. trans.)]
Otto Klemperer talking to Peter Heyworth, 1969
During the first years of exile, the conductor Otto Klemperer was an important mentor and supporter of the composer Arnold Schönberg. Klemperer, for example, encouraged him to adapt works by other composers that could be performed with good reception, including the Piano Quartet by Johannes Brahms. When Schönberg arrived in the United States in October of 1933, Klemperer already had contacts at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and possessed a keen sense of the audience there. Schönberg had hoped that Klemperer, his longtime colleague from Europe, would perform pieces by him – an expectation that was shattered from the start because Klemperer feared the audience in Los Angeles would not understand Schönberg's music.
The concern was justified: In Europe, audiences had already voiced protest of Schöneberg's concerts because his twelve-tone compositions sounded strange to the ears of many listeners. Schönberg was initially upset, but later saw a point in adapting such works since it gave him an opportunity to concentrate on composers he held in high esteem. The music of Brahms served as a paradigm throughout his life. The 1938 premiere of his adaptation of Brahms' Piano Quartet in Los Angeles was a great success. Later, Schönberg jokingly called this composition the Fifth Symphony of Brahms.
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