„Seid umschlungen Millionen“
Be embraced, you millions

Otto Klemperer, the famed German conductor yet forgotten composer, who was a protégé of Gustav Mahler, fled from the Nazis in 1933. Settling in California, he became the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This was not a marriage made in heaven. Klemperer was diagnosed with a brain tumor and operated on which left him partially paralyzed in 1939 and he lost the post of music director. In 1952, during the Second Red Scare, the United States refused to renew his passport and he returned to Europe. In 1957, now over 72 years old, he made a record for EMI with the New Philharmonia Orchestra of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Kingsway Hall, London. The record lasts for 72 minutes.
The album Beethoven No.9 is composed and computed from this record, containing my opus 553 through 556.
Frank Rothkamm Los Angeles, California
released September 7, 2015