Name: Linda Perkins
Location: Great Britain
Date: October 26th 2004
Contact: Linda (Web Site Owner)
I never had the opportunity to see Karajan in concert so my experiences relate only to audio and video recordings. I had always enjoyed listening to classical music, although not being able to read music or play an instrument; I had, therefore, always felt that the finer details of understanding were inaccessible to me. In 1991 we bought a Laserdisc player and the first disc I played was Karajan's 1973 Unitel version of Brahms First Symphony. I found the whole experience totally absorbing with the filming not distracting but positively aiding me to a better understanding of the music. I bought other Karajan films and CDs read biographies and became, for want of a better word, "hooked".
My musical tastes are basically Austro-German romantic orchestral music particularly Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss but Sibelius is also a great favourite of mine. To me, the rhythm, the phrasing, the whole Karajan sound with its attention to detailed precisely balanced tone and dynamics makes the music last forever in my head. Particularly in the music of Sibelius and Bruckner I get an overwhelming sense of completeness and "rightness" at the end of a symphony. For example, I feel Bruckner Symphony No 8 conducted by Karajan in 1988 is like an epic journey and no matter how many times I hear it I am never disappointed at the end, the conclusion always leaving me overwhelmed. With Sibelius the rhythmic drive is not only heard but also "felt" with transitions between movements in Symphony No 2 and particularly in Symphony No 5 inducing once again this sense of absolute inevitable "rightness". How often I feel that Karajan performances are not only heard with our ears but felt deep inside.
Date: April 4th 2012
I have received the following email from James Jolly, Editor in Chief, "Gramophone".
"I thought you might be interested to learn of a new initiative from Gramophone: the Hall of Fame which celebrates the men and women who made the classical record industry what it is. After voting by our readers, Karajan emerged (easily) in Poll Position. Our May issue will contain details of all 50 people, championed by 50 more (Mariss Jansons writes about Karajan), the issue will also have a CD of the Philharmonia Beethoven 5 and Brahms 2, and our website will re-present many of our archive interviews with Karajan and much more."
With best wishes James Jolly
Editor in Chief, Gramophone
Click on the logo above to see the Karajan page.
Linda
Contributors Index (21)
(In Alphabetical Order)
Umberto Nicoletti Altimari (Italy)
Paul Aron (U.S.A.)
Renee Bouineau (U.S.A.)
Rossana Cimarelli (Italy)
Simon Clark (United Arab Emirates)
Andrea Colombini (Italy)
Richard Craig (United Kingdom)
Geoffrey D. Decker (U.S.A.)
Dale Gaumer (U.S.A.)
Lucas Guitink (Netherlands)
Daniel Floyd (United Kingdom)
Heather Hooper (United Kingdom)
John Hooper (United Kingdom)
John Hunt (United Kingdom)
John McCauley (U.S.A.)
George Moneo (U.S.A.)
David Parker (United Kingdom)
Dr Janusz Piotrowicz (United Kingdom)
Gwen Podbrey (South Africa)
Simon Riddick
Xiao Qingyong (China)
If you would like to appear on this page, please contact me.
Name: David Parker
Location: Great Britain
Date: October 30th 2004
Contact: davidparker@ashford08.fsnet.co.uk
It all started in 1963 when a colleague lent me a couple of records from his new set of LPs. The discs were of course the now legendary 1962 recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies, and as I listened it was apparent that these were remarkable performances by a master conductor with a truly superb orchestra. During the coming weeks and months listening to these recordings became almost an addiction and I decided that I must make the effort to hear these forces in a live performance.
As it happened their next visit to the UK was scheduled only a few months later, and I was able to obtain tickets for the Brahms cycle consisting of 3 concerts in London in January and February 1964. Since then I was privileged to have attended 22 of Karajan's 30 concerts in the UK, including his final appearance in London on 6th October 1988, only 9 months before his death. I also visited Salzburg for the Easter Festivals in 1968, 1971 and 1972, and the Summer Festivals in 1967 and 1969.
I think that Karajan's conducting was absolutely unique, and although the orchestra was always contained by his grasp, it was never too tightly held or overridden, so that for example a wind soloist always had ample time to excel, without rushing, whilst still remaining part of the whole. Karajan's appreciation of orchestral balance and tone was also exceptional, so that during his time one of the glories of the Berlin Philharmonic was the splendour and lyrical vitality of the double basses, the sight of which even seemed to add another dimension to the thrill of the playing.
A favourite live performance? - possibly the St. Matthew Passion in Salzburg on Good Friday in 1972, with a breathtaking array of soloists including Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier and Walter Berry. This was a very profound experience; Richard Osborne recounts in 'A Life in Music' that Janowitz ranked the 2 performances of this work in Salzburg at Easter in 1972 as one of the high points of her musical life.
A favourite recording? - very difficult to decide, but probably the 1973 recording of the Four Last Songs by Strauss, again with Janowitz. Karajan achieves here a most wonderful evenness of line, producing what is for me possibly the most beautiful music I have ever heard.
I obtained this autograph of Herbert von Karajan as he entered the Royal Festival Hall in London on 13th June 1977 before conducting a performance of Mahler's 6th Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic. I obtained these autographs of two of the outstanding musicians in Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic following a chamber concert at Stonyhurst College, near Clitheroe, Lancashire in 1969; they are of concertmaster, Michel Schwalbe and incomparable oboist Lothar Koch.
Name: John Hooper
Location: London UK
Date: November 3rd 2004
Contact: john.hooper@pickfords.com
I first became interested in HVK when I was 17/18, my father used to play the record of the DG recording Opera Intermezzi. I recall my fathers comments how Karajan made the violins ‘sing’ and this is still the case today when I play these pieces.
I started to buy every record that I could and this helped me to understand not only the music but how Karajan shaped it, to me making the music more interesting, almost a sound picture.
Although I love the recorded music my preference is for the ‘live’ concerts. Fortunately with DVD releases and the transfer of my cassette recordings of radio broadcasts to CD I now have a large collection of live concerts, with assistance from other Karajan fans around the world I have also been able to obtain CDR copies of many other live performances.
My mother has always been interested in Opera and we soon started to go to the Royal Opera House, although we did not see Karajan, many of the great singers he used performed at the Royal Opera House during the 70s and 80s, Domingo, Pavarotti, Freni, Ghiaurov, Kollo, Behrens, Vickers etc. In 1976 I discovered how to get tickets for the Berlin Phil with HVK at the Festival Hall in London, we were lucky enough to attend all of the HVK concerts in London up to the final one in 1988. My most vivid memories of these concerts was after the orchestra had taken their seats the anticipation and electric atmosphere created prior to Karajan’s arrival on the podium was unbelievable I have never experienced anything like it before or since.
However the highlight for me was in 1978 when I obtained tickets for Salzburg summer Salome and Don Carlos. I can remember to this day the overwhelming emotion I felt during parts of these performances, and in the climaxes in Salome the auditorium shook with the sheer power of the sound.
After one of the Festival Hall concerts, on our way out, my father thought it a good idea to take the two posters which measure almost a metre by half a metre from one of the advertising stands in the foyer. Carrying them along the streets was fun. He had the Oxford one framed and the other I gave to Linda Perkins.
Name: Heather Hooper
Location: Bournemouth UK
Date: December 9th 2004
Contact: Hooperh45@aol.com
I remember the first Karajan concerts my husband and my son went to we had to queue all night with sleeping bags. The Festival hall in London is right on the front of the River Thames and as it was winter the weather was freezing, but it was worth it in the end.
At some of the concerts we would meet John Hunt who my son John was very friendly with. In the 70s John Hunt worked in specialist classical record shops and it was he who introduced us to many of the Karajan recordings that we collected over the years, of course he has gone on to produce the excellent Karajan Concert Register and Discography books.
My favourite music is Opera, when I was young I heard various bits on the radio. After I had my children I joined a library and borrowed the only 2 records they had, “Il Trovatore” and “Carmen”, later on I did buy the “Trovatore” not realizing at the time it was the famous Karajan, Callas EMI recording.
Maria Callas has always been my favourite soprano, however Agnes Baltsa is my all time favourite, her performance in the ‘Live’ Karajan "Don Carlos" DVD is probably the finest of all time.
From the Tenors I have always loved the voice of Rene Kollo, we had the pleasure of seeing a performance of “Lohengrin” at the Royal Opera House where his singing was mesmerising.
Another favourite DVD concert which my daughter Gillian always likes me to play is the 1988 Berlin concert of the Tschaikowsky Piano Concerto No 1. Karajan looks so happy and well, ironically only a few months before his death.
In August 2004 my son John took me on my first trip overseas, this was to the wonderful city of Salzburg, we went a Vienna Philharmonic Concert and to a performance of “Der Rosenkavalier”. I now want to go to Vienna, Milan and possibly Rome.
The Karajan DVDs and CD collections allow me to re-live some wonderful memories and to enjoy music of the highest quality produced by a genius the likes of which we and future generations will never see or hear again.
Name: Renee Bouineau
Location: Carmel, California U.S.A.
Date: January 8th 2005
Contact: bouineau@yahoo.com
Unfortunately I don't have a lot to contribute concerning Karajan, only that I did have the extreme good fortune to see/hear, him in Berlin, once and at no cost to me! A friend of mine who is a harpist, (Domenica Reetz) was studying at the time, with a Berlin Philharmonic harpist who made a couple of free tickets available to her. I felt as though I had been whisked away to another world! It was Mahler's, Das Lied von der Erde.
Other than records and CDs, the only other "contact" I had with the Maestro was when a close friend of mine had a T-shirt made for me, (just for fun) with a conductor's baton on the front with the words: "Karajan uber alles". I considered making about 100 of those and sending them to the Berlin Philharmonic, but that would have run into considerable expense so I just mailed the one I had to the Maestro himself and he was kind enough to send a "Thank You" note with his signature which really surprised me.Apart from that I can only say that I have actually taken "leisurely" strolls past his rustic Austrian farm house in Anif, just outside Salzburg. He never gave me the satisfaction of being outside in his garden at the time! Other than that, like the rest of us, I adored and respected him from afar!
and especially like your good wishes.
With my sincerest thanks.
Herbert von Karajan"
Name: Xiao Qingyong
Location: China
Date: April 2nd 2005
Contact: xiaoqingyong@vip.sina.com
Karajan in China 1979
You know, China just opened in 1979, You can see the Berliner Philharmoniker was written Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester. That was witness of occlusion. I saw one concert by TV in 1979, as I was a student.
The program of 3 concerts are:
1. Mozart Symphony No. 39 / Brahms Symphony No. 1
2. Dvorak Symphony No. 8 / Mussorgsky Pictures at an exhibition
3. Beethoven Symphony No. 4 / Beethoven Symphony No. 7 (with member of China Central Symphony Orchestra)
Name: John Hunt
Location: London UK
Date: April 30th 2005
Contact: n/a
I first experienced the conducting of Herbert von Karajan on 21st August 1957 in a performance of Verdi’s “Falstaff” at the Salzburg Festival. There followed his last three concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in 1958, 1959 and 1960 as well as his first ever London appearances with the Berlin Philharmoniker in November 1958. All these events were turning points in Karajan’s progress to holding an unrivalled position in Europe’s classical music hierarchy and, in addition, my personal initiation into a standard of excellence which was otherwise unheard of in London’s concert life. For this reason I remember the concerts meeting with a certain degree of resentment (even incomprehension) from established music critics at the time.
It was my privilege to attend a total of 187 concerts and opera performances conducted by Herbert von Karajan over the 33-year period from 1957 until his death in 1989. These took place principally in Salzburg and London, but also embraced unforgettable events in Edinburgh, Lucerne, Paris and, in the later years, in Berlin itself.
Therefore I counted myself very lucky when I was asked, in the years following Karajan’s death, to assist and advise on the archive material being assembled for the newly established Karajan Centre in Vienna. My qualification for the task was that I had compiled a number of discographies and concert registers of his extensive career, in which every recording is accounted for and virtually every public appearance is documented.
The really difficult thing in surveying an artistic achievement of such magnitude is to select a short-list of personal favourites. Among the recordings I would not be without are “Hansel und Gretal” (EMI), “Philharmonia Promenade Concert” (Columbia 33CX 1335 – not yet published on CD), Beethoven Symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon 1962), Mozart Divertimenti K287 and K334 (Deutsche Grammophon), Wagner “Lohengrin” (EMI) and any one of the versions of Bruckner Symphony No 8. And among actual concerts attended (how lucky we are that so many of these are preserved in unofficial recordings), I would single out the Salzburg stage performances of “Boris Godunov” and “Meistersinger” and, above all, a miraculous evening in the Salzburg Grosses Festspielhaus in April 1974 with Mozart Divertimento K287 and Strauss “Sinfonia Domestica”.
Note: John Hunt is the author of the following books on Herbert von Karajan:-
Added 12th February 2008A response by John Hunt to Norman Lebrecht's London Evening Standard article
("Don't turn a monster into a myth" on 30th January 2008)
Lebrecht's hatred for the twentieth century's key conducting figure is by now well-known, and is almost as recurrent a theme in his journalistic hack-work as the prediction of classical music's imminent collapse.
I first came across Lebrecht in 1990 at a public lecture he gave in London's Wiener Library, in which he set out to demolish the significance of not only Herbert von Karajan but also Wilhelm Furtwngler. I subsequently sent Lebrecht a list of the factual errors which largely invalidated his monstrous argument that both conductors had been official representatives of the National Socialists.
The current article again illustrates Lebrecht’s disregard for factual accuracy, reducing his argument to the rantings of an envy-ridden obsessive. Just to cite a couple of the incorrect assertions, Karajan was not “booted out” of the Philharmonia, nor did he exclude Bernstein, Solti, Harnoncourt and Barenboim from conducting concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker. And on the subject of a 200 million fortune, is Lebrecht aware of the vast amount of Karajan’s money which was ploughed back into the record industry for purposes of technological research?
Anyone who has actually interviewed the current holder of the Berlin conducting post would have learned that Simon Rattle could not be further from claiming Karajan as a mentor!
One wonders if Lebrecht’s condemnation would be so harsh if Karajan had been Jewish?
Note: Please click here to view Norman Lebrecht's highly contentious article.
Added 22nd March 2008Herbert von Karajan: the EMI Recordings 1946-1984
Assembled here on compact disc, in two convenient and space-saving volumes of 88 (Orchestral) and 71 discs (Opera and Choral) respectively, are almost all the recordings ever published by EMI.
Whilst feeling incredibly grateful to EMI for making the sets available, even more so at such a bargain price, the completist in me immediately sets to work to see if anything is actually missing. We are given the live Lucia di Lammermoor with Callas and Vier letzte Lieder with Schwarzkopf, so why not the live Missa Solemnis, Deutsches Requiem, Verdi Requiem and Bruckner Te Deum from the Salzburg Festival (1957-1960)?; the Ponchielli Dance of the Hours, mono version, is actually tucked away with miscellaneous opera intermezzi and arias in the Opera and Choral volume; Meistersinger Wahnmonolog with Hotter is, as far as I can ascertain, an unpublished recording which was never actually completed (Hotter’s name inadvertently appears in the booklet’s track listing for the Wach auf chorus; his published version of the Wahnmonolog from 1949 was made with the conductor Meinhard von Zallinger). Ironically Kodaly Hary Janos Intermezzo appears twice, first in a mono Bartok programme and later grouped with other intermezzi on CD 46. Various unpublished items from EMI’s archives which could have been included but are not, must be the subject of a separate discussion later: all we are given here is a very brief Bartok rehearsal extract (1949) and the two piano concerti by Kurt Leimer.
Where possible EMI has drawn on its previous CD masterings in volumes devoted to Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics and to the Philharmonia, re-mastering for this issue only those items which are being re-coupled. A little unfortunate, therefore, that those early CD editions of mono Philharmonia recordings in particular had a glassy brilliance which was quite alien to the original LP records. The Beethoven Symphonies suffer in this respect, so we must still hope that another editor will present them faithfully (maybe Naxos?). Similarly, if you already possess Great Recordings of the Century CD issues of the mono Philharmonia opera recordings (Ariadne auf Naxos, Cosi fan tutte, Hansel und Gretel, Die Fledermaus), do not discard them, because the masterings now presented in the new edition are the earlier inferior transfers, and also lack the informative booklets (we are told that track listings and libretti for the new edition are to be found online).
Special highlights of the early Columbia catalogue were those LP collections like Ballet Music from the Operas (33CX1327), Opera Intermezzi (33CX1265) and Philharmona Promenade Concert (33CX1335), so it is a pity that in order to maximise the full playing time of the compact disc, many of those items are extracted to provide fill-ups rather than being presented in their original permutations.
Now if Universal was to bring together all the Deutsche Grammophon and Decca material into a similar edition, we would have a comprehensive monument indeed to an artist who is arguably the most accomplished and consistent in classical recording history.
John Hunt
Added 19th December 2008Herbert von Karajan at the 1957 Salzburg Festival
For record collectors and concertgoers with long memories, one of the benefits of the proliferating market in issues of live performances is having one’s recollection either confirmed or repudiated. Were the musical events which we recall through the audio equivalent of rose-coloured spectacles really as outstanding as we claim, and do they justify being preserved at all?
The Orfeo CD label has just published official editions of Herbert von Karajan’s concert and opera appearances in the year in which he took over as master-mind of Salzburg’s august institution: orchestral concerts (C773 084), Beethoven’s Fidelio (C771 082) and Verdi’s Falstaff (C772 082). The two operas have of course long been available in pirated copies of the original Austrian Radio broadcast tapes, and Falstaff had already circulated in an exemplary transfer on the Andante label, coupled with Toscanini’s famous 1937 Salzburg performance of the same work.
When I arrived in Salzburg for the first time in August 1957, direct from my German studies at the University of Wrzburg (actually stopping on the way to attend a performance of Wagner’s Meistersinger in Bayreuth), I knew little of the Salzburg Festival’s history and that this was, for example, Karajan’s return to his home town after a seven-year absence dictated by his eminent antipode Wilhelm Furtwngler. Having succeeded, on Furtwngler’s death, to the conductorship of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and also having taken on directorship of the Vienna State Opera, it seemed to be yet another accolade for the 49-year old Karajan when he assumed conducting (and later also administrative) duties in Salzburg.
Traditionally it had been the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra which had bestrode almost all opera performances and orchestral concerts in the Salzburg Festival, and it was now one of Karajan’s first suggestions that visiting orchestras should relieve some of the burden by taking over certain concerts. Naturally in 1957 it was the Berlin Philharmonic, who played no less that six programmes, two of which Karajan himself conducted (the other conductors were Szell, Kubelik and Sawallisch). The two Karajan concerts are included in Orfeo’s new set, one a Mozart programme with a Jupiter Symphony played with Toscanini-like gusto, the other a contemporary programme concluding with one of Karajan’s really great specialities, the Third Symphony of Honegger.
I attended the performance of Verdi’s Falstaff in the modest-sized Festspielhaus (the Grosses Festspielhaus had not yet been built), whilst the performances of Beethoven’s Fidelio and Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem (both also in Orfeo’s set, the Brahms having previously appeared on EMI) were given in the Felsenreitschule. In those days this venue was, weather permitting, an open-air auditorium overlooked from the students’ hostel on the Monchsberg, from which we could enjoy the performances without charge.
Whilst it was most appropriate that Karajan should direct the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1957 Festival’s opening orchestral concert, with a repeat of the performance of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony which they had successfully given in the Austrian capital a few months earlier, Orfeo’s annotator fails to make it clear that on that night Karajan was standing in for Klemperer, who had been taken ill only days before the concert. Orfeo manage to fit the 81-minute marathon onto one disc.
In that busy August week I also heard Bhm conduct Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Mitropoulos Strauss’s Elektra, but it is without doubt the Karajan performances which left the most indelible impressions on a young music-lover, impressions which are now endorsed by Orfeo’s publication. Is it too much to hope that the company will go on to document Karajan’s subsequent years of activity for the Salzburg Festival?
John Hunt
Added 4th February 2009Karajan in Moscow
Between 28 May and 8 June 1969 Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker undertook a mini-tour of concerts in the Soviet Union, London and Paris. For both conductor and orchestra this was a third time in Russia – Karajan had been there briefly in 1962 with the Wiener Philharmoniker, and again with the company of La Scala Milan in 1964. For the Berliners, however, this appears to have been their first concerts there since appearances in 1899 and 1904 under the conductorship of Artur Nikisch.
During the 1980s Melodiya had published three separate LPs with works drawn from the three 1969 concerts given in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory (LP catalogue numbers C10 21227 009, C10 21423 000 and C10 27621 004). Now they have gone a step further and issued the three programmes in their entirety on CD. CD10 01512 contains the Beethoven programme of 28 May (Coriolan and Symphonies 5 and 6), CD10 01513 the concert of 29 May (Bach Brandenburg Concerto 1 and Shostakovich Symphony 10) and CD10 01514 the programme on 30 May (Mozart Divertimento 17 and Strauss Ein Heldenleben). The last mentioned is a 2-CD set.
Keen anticipation and political controversy surrounded this visit to the Soviet Union by an ensemble which was culturally representative of the Federal Republic of Germany rather than the Communist East German State, and it is reported that at least one of the concerts an announcement had to be made to make it clear that the Orchestra was from West Berlin, a fact apparently not stated in the printed programme books. Works from the Moscow concerts were then repeated in those given in Leningrad on 1 and 2 June, and it was one of these which Shostakovich himself attended to hear the performance of his Tenth Symphony (I was wrong when I stated in my 2001 Karajan Concert Register that Shostakovich was present at the Moscow concert). The London and Paris concerts which followed were made up of almost entirely different repertoire to the Russian ones.
The sound quality on these CDs is of acceptable mono broadcast standard, and therefore does not rival that on various commercially published versions of this core Karajan repertoire. However, the frisson of live performance more than makes up for any sonic deficiencies, for me particularly in the Bach and Mozart works, defiantly played as mainstream orchestral pieces – this may not be to the taste of the baroque specialists, but is certainly to mine! Where we can all agree is in the case of the Shostakovich Tenth, a performance often recalled by previous commentators and broadcasters on the strength of that rare Melodiya LP but now thankfully made available to a wider audience.
John Hunt
Name: Gwen Podbrey
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Date: July 19th 2005
Contact: gpodbrey@truelove.co.za
I am not a musicologist, nor am I a musician. But I am an ardent lover of music, and I have always found the recordings of Herbert von Karajan to be life-changing, even shattering experiences.
Like so many others who never had the chance to hear the great conductor live or attend any of his performances, I adored (and still adore) from a distance.
I cannot listen to his superlative recording of the Brahms Deutsche Requiem (with Gundula Janowitz) without being overcome by emotions and images too deep and intense to articulate. It is a recording which has personally lifted me out of some of the darkest moments in my life, for the beauty, power and conviction with which Von Karajan controlled this work, and its truths.
For me, this was surely one of his supreme accomplishments, and I know that it was also one of the works to which he returned periodically - it obviously held an immensely strong attraction for him. Many have noted that the maestro was particularly drawn to "farewell" music....
It is 16 years today since the world lost this extraordinary man, and yet every time I listen to any of his recordings, I know that we have not lost him at all. Nor can we ever.
May God bless him, and may he rest in peace and light. I think also of his family often, who I think were blessed too in having him in their lives. I pray that they are well and happy.
Thanking you.
Name: Daniel Floyd
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Date: July 26th 2005
Contact: daniel1112@hotmail.com
My first encounter with Herbert von Karajan's work coincided with my burgeoning interest in Classical music when I was a teenager. Over a few months in 1992-93, I borrowed many recordings from my local library, including Karajan's recordings of J.S. Bach's Messe in h-moll (1950), Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni (1970), Beethoven's nine symphonies (1962), and Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1966).
When I began buying recordings of Classical music shortly thereafter, Karajan's recordings figured prominently in my collection. I continued checking out items from the library for comparison with the recordings I purchased and to explore different composers. After becoming conversant with several accounts of Beethoven's symphonies, including recordings by Arturo Toscanini, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, and Wilhelm Furtwngler, I began to realize how remarkable Karajan's interpretations really were, especially for their time. His tempos were ideal, and he took full advantage of a modern orchestra's sonority and lush tonal palate without ever sounding heavy, turgid, or cloying, as Furtwngler, Walter, and Klemperer occasionally did.
As my listening interests expanded, I continued to prefer Karajan as a guide because he always added an extra dimension to the music: the smoothness of line and luxuriousness of sound made each work sound fresh, even after repeated listening. Karajan is often underrated as a conductor who could breathe new life into compositions that are difficult to perform effectively, such as Robert Schumann's four symphonies.
Karajan excelled in much more than the traditional Austro-German Romantic repertoire that he inherited from his predecessors at the Berlin Philharmonic. Equally excellent were his performances of Italian and French opera, as well as orchestral music from many other nations. I also find his approach to Baroque music, especially J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, the Brandenburg Concertos, and the Orchestral Suites thoroughly convincing, even when compared with the widely-acclaimed recordings of Karl Richter and more recent accounts by period-instrument ensembles.
Even when music (e.g., that of Tchaikovsky) has been performed exquisitely on many occasions by other conductors, Karajan had something to add to our understanding of it. Evgeny Mravinksky's legendary (1960) recordings of Tchaikovsky's Symphonies Nos. 4-6 are classics of the gramophone, but Karajan's, which followed in their wake, convey the emotional intensity and delicacy of these works equally well, and with more elegant and precise orchestral execution to boot.
On a final note, I would like to comment on Karajan's performances of Anton Bruckner's symphonies. As much as I love Eugen Jochum's landmark cycles on Deutsche Grammophon and EMI, Karajan gave accounts of the Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Symphonies that have never been (and may never be) surpassed. In Jochum's hands, the Eighth Symphony is a glorious statement to be sure, but Karajan's (1988) performance with the Wiener Philharmoniker endued the same work with an unprecedented emotional and intellectual depth, lending Bruckner's epic masterpiece a new sense of proportion and direction. Whereas Jochum's interpretation emphasizes the symphony's cathedral-like structure, Karajan's feels more like a spiritual odyssey, perhaps conveying the programmatic significance of certain passages that Bruckner described in some of his letters.
Name: Umberto Nicoletti Altimari
Location: Italy
Date: September 5th 2005
Contact: umnicol@tin.it
I began to listen to classical music when I was 12. Beethoven 5th conducted by Karajan was my first purchased LP. Since that time Herbert von Karajan has been my favourite conductor. I started my collection of recordings, at the time on LPs, and to dream to go to one of his performances. As I am Italian I was not lucky in that sense as Karajan, after a long term relationship with my country, interrupted his presence in Italy. I waited until I was able to go to Salzburg in 1980 (I was 20) where finally my dream became reality with an unforgettable Bruckner 7th with the Vienna Philharmonic. On that occasion I was lucky to find a ticket also for the open rehearsal in the morning. During the following years I have been again to Salzburg both for the Easter and Summer Festivals meaning new occasions to listen to Karajan on the podium conducting Operas (Lohengrin, Falstaff, Carmen, Tosca, Don Carlo) and concerts.
As a concert and opera-goer I never found the same results even with other great conductors. Karajan has been the last witness of a glorious tradition coming from Germany but also the very first modern conductor open to new ideas and repertoire. With him the Berlin Philharmonic achieved a performing standard that is not comparable with others from both the past and the present time in terms of technique, power and beauty of sound.
From my experiences I can’t forget his Bruckner (I listen to the 5, 7, 8 and 9 Symphonies) his Tchaikovsky “Pathetique”, Strauss Alpensinfonie and Heldenleben, Brahms Deutsches Requiem and also Falstaff and Lohengrin. I was also surprised from his French concert with Debussy’s La Mer and Prelude l’aprs-midi and Ravel’s Bolero. I regret to have not listened to his Mahler, Prokofiev, Verdi Requiem and Sibelius works and I also regret that he never conducted some works very close to his sensibility and repertoire such as, for example, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Trittico, Brahms Piano Concerto No 1, Strauss Capriccio, Shostakovich 5th and of course more Mahler and British Music.
Critics are invited to have a deeper look to his career considering that he was not a conservative musician (he conducted works from Pendercki, Messiaen, Ligeti, Henze, Martin, Orff, Berg, Webern, Schoenberg, Blacher, Stravinsky, Barber, Ives, Ghedini, Pizzetti, Hindemith, Britten) at the time in which they have been considered “modern”. He was always very open to the young musicians and colleagues inviting at the Salzburg Festivals all the best young conductors at the time such as Maazel, Mehta, Abbado, Muti, Sinopoli, Chailly, Ozawa and a lot of young instruments players. Thanks to his huge work in the recording studios and to his videos making a lot of persons all around the world has listen to classical music for the first time. In our time of sponsorship and globalization it seems ridiculous to criticize his work for the media and to consider it only as an easy way to increase his richness. I think that he gave to all of us a contribution to our personal interior richness and that is the supreme achievement for any artist.
Name: Dale Gaumer
Location: U.S.A.
Date: October 18th 2005
Contact: DaleGaumer@ieee.org
A concert of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan made an indellible impression on me. At the time I was a Sophomore Electrical Engineering student at the University of Kansas.
The University provided numerous opportunities for an extended introduction to live performances of serious music. Until then, I lived in a very sparsely populated region of the U.S. high plains. We only had one AM radio station with good reception during the day, and at night we could receive several AM stations, including those in Denver, New Orleans, Chicago, and station XELO which broadcast English language programs from Mexico. No FM stations were available. About the time I entered high school in 1950, I decided that there had to be something better than the usual broadcast fare, which was pretty much limited to pop, Western, and Hill Billy (that's really what it was called). Western and Hill Billy later merged into today's country music, which to my ear is more like Hill Billy than the music of Western singers like Roy Rogers and quartets like Sons of the Pioneers and Riders of the Purple Sage. None of the AM stations had much in the way of classical music. I finally found a one-hour Sunday afternoon classical music program on the daytime AM station. That immediately satisfied my quest for something better, so I knew to be present when the Berlin Philharmonic came to the University on 1 November 1956.
The initial impression made by Karajan and his orchestra was both exhilarating and disheartening.
As an appreciator of serious music, I found it exhilarating to experience the power and precision of a great orchestra playing great music. Never had I heard such detail and such clarity in music. Karajan's orchestra produced sound as if from a totally unified organism. There was no discernible deviation of any individual instrument from exact, synchronized rendition, shaped by Karajan's interpretation. The flawless precision and cohesion was a startling new experience for me. Until then, most of my listening was to the monaural LP records of the day. I suppose I had a case of what was called "Victrola ear", wherein my musical listening experiences were so steeped in the limited reproduction technology of the day that I thought a good LP produced what music really sounded like. My university roommate was similarly afflicted, or maybe more so. On hearing music performed on the newest high fidelity equipment of the day, he concluded that violins were so screechy that he couldn't understand how they ever became popular. He didn't bother to attend Karajan's performance.
As a student electrical engineer interested in music reproduction, I was disheartened by Karajan's performance in that so much of the effect of serious music was lost as it passed through even the latest recording equipment and then to high-end home reproduction equipment. I knew there was no way for me to duplicate that experience at home. That was pretty disheartening. It seemed that the technical challenges were insurmountable. The University FM station took special attention to produce a few programs each week that were devoted to broadcasting the finest music quality possible. A part- time job at the station permitted me to see what that required. Such things as the