Herbert von Karajan

Herbert von Karajan is a conductor Austrian, born in Salzburg on 5 April 1908 and died in Anif near Salzburg , on 16 July 1989 .

Specialist Austro-German repertoire and Central Europe Bach to Bartók and Italian opera, he left nearly six hundred recordings for Deutsche Grammophon , EMIand Decca, making it the most recorded chief of xx century.

Summary
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 * 1 Biography
 * 2 Music Orientations
 * 3 registered Composers
 * 4 French Riviera
 * 5 Awards
 * 6 See also
 * 6.1 Bibliography
 * 6.2 Videography
 * 6.3 Related Articles
 * 6.4 External Links
 * 7 Notes and references

Biography [ edit | edit the code ]
Heribert Ritter von Karajan (Knight of Karajan) was born in an Austrian family Salzburg including a paternal ancestor was from Macedonia . His great-grandfather, the Aromanian Georgios Johannes Karajànnis, from Kozani, in present Greece , went to Vienna in 1767 and then to Chemnitz in Saxony . He and his son were ennobled by the Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus III on  June 1792 in recognition of their contribution to the development of the Saxon textile industry; Karajànnis became Karajan, to which was added the "von". He is the second son of Ernst, surgeon and director of the main hospital in Salzburg, and Martha Cosmac, from a family of notables of the region Graz .

Parents Herbert Ernst and Martha.

His father is a clarinetist Mozarteum Salzburg, initiated early children to music. His older brother Wolfgang reveals little talent for the piano but Herbert, hidden under the instrument takes advantage of the laboring lessons Wolfgang, even before receiving lessons and become a gifted performer. From 1916 to 1926 he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.The director of the local conservatory, the educator Bernhard Paumgartner (en), takes him under his wing and became his mentor, advising him to concentrate on composition and conducting, this conversion is favored by chronic tendinitis affecting fingers Herbert .

He continued his musical studies at the Vienna Academy of Music with Professor Franz Schalk .

Herbert von Karajan made ​​his official debut as a conductor in 1929 by directing Salome of Richard Strauss to Salzburgand became, until 1934, first Kapellmeister of the State Opera of Ulm . In 1933, he made ​​his debut at the Salzburg Festival directing The Walpurgis Night Mendelssohn in a production of Faust by Goethe director Max Reinhardt . The same year, he presents in Salzburg a first application to join the Nazi Party, which does not end because of the restrictions imposed in the Nazi party after the coming to power of Adolf Hitler ; but he finally joins two years later, in March 1935 , in order to get the ardently coveted post of head of the symphony orchestra of Aachen Theatre . That year, he is the youngest music director (Generalmusikdirektor) German and is guest conductor in Stockholm, Brussels and Amsterdam. In 1937 he made ​​his debut with theBerlin Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera in Fidelio .

In 1938, he obtained his first success in Berlin directing Tristan and Isolde ; As a Berlin critic and his article "Das Wunder Karajan" ("The Karajan Miracle"). It then becomes a pawn used against Wilhelm Furtwänglerin internal cultural war between Joseph Goebbels to Hermann Göring to control the German musical world, Goebbels supporting the Berlin Philharmonic and the National Opera Goering. July 26, 1938, he married the singer operetta, Elmy Holgerloef. They divorced in 1942, Herbert remarrying 22 October of the same year with the young heir of a great dynasty of German industrialists, Anna Maria Gutermann (called Anita) .

In 1939, Karajan attracts the enmity of Hitler at a gala concert given in honor of the Yugoslav monarchs where, because of the error baritone Rudolf Bockelmann , it loses the thread of Meistersinger composerRichard Wagner - he conducted without a score, as usual - the singers then stop singing and in the greatest confusion, the curtain falls; Furious, Hitler gave the order to Winifred Wagner : "I live, Herr von Karajan never lead in Bayreuth." Karajan, however, remains at the head of the Orchestra of the Staatskapelle Berlin State Opera .

After the war, in 1947, it is " denazified "by the Allies and made ​​under contract by Walter Legge , the following year to become permanent conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. At the reopening of theBayreuth Festival in 1951 and the following year he was invited to conduct the orchestra of the festival, including a legendary Tristan and Isolde. The conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler died late 1954. Karajan was appointed in 1955 to head life of the Berlin Philharmonic, allowing him to realize his lifelong dream: to become the successor of the famous German conductor.

His appointment signs the starting Sergiu Celibidache, the chief partner of the Berlin Philharmonic. Karajan vowed enmity to Celibidache and removed her name from the list of holders leaders Philharmonic. The latter will redirect the Philharmonic once, in 1992, after the death of Karajan and his name was restored from the list of holders leaders belatedly by Simon Rattle when taking office as head of the Philharmonic Berlin in 1999.

He is the head of the orchestra is considered, at the time, and for a long time, as the most prestigious in the world and Karajan may consider himself the heir of the largest German tradition of orchestral conducting (Richard Wagner , Hans von Bülow , Arthur Nikisch and Wilhelm Furtwängler ). The quality of the orchestra as Karajan once confided to his new musicians that "it seemed to lean against a thick wall when he headed the" .

In 1955, after a first concert in New York, he made ​​with the band a big tour in the United States, he renewed the following year. It was in these years that is set up the "Karajan system" very elaborate, which is to work in the studio orchestra before recording operas on disk, so that when the stage performances, the The orchestra is perfectly prepared. Herbert von Karajan in 1940 . In 1956, Karajan became artistic director of the Salzburg Festival , he will not leave until 1988. In 1957 he succeeded Karl Böhm as artistic director of the Vienna State Opera, a position that he left in 1964 on a falling out. In 1967 he founded the Salzburg Easter Festival while staying at the head of the Salzburg Festival. Then he recorded the disc, until 1971, a ring that is standing its bias sound orchestral transparency and lightness.

From 1969 to 1971, he is the artistic director of the Orchestre de Paris . In 1977, he found the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time since 1964; there will never be director, but guest conductor. At the dawn of the 80s, Karajan plays a key role in the development of digital recording and appears in the first press conference announcing the creation of the CD. In 1982, it conflicts with his orchestra trying to impose Sabine Meyer to the position of principal clarinet in a then almost exclusively male formation . This is the beginning of a tense time with "his" musicians from Berlin that will see more and more often lead to Vienna. In 1987, he headed the New Year Concert at the MusikvereinVienna with soprano Kathleen Battle .

He gave his last concert in Paris in 1988 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with, the program Transfigured Night of Schönberg and First Symphony of Brahms . Worn out by illness back and the pain that forced him to wear a straitjacket, he resigned in 1989 from the Berlin Philharmonic and performs April 24 at Deutsche Grammophon and with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, his last record, that of the Seventh Symphony of Bruckner . He died in July following a heart attack in his home of Anif .

Musical direction [ edit | edit the code ]
Karajan in 1941 . Karajan explored a wide repertoire ranging from baroque to the music of the twentieth century. He said on the occasion of the release of his recording of the opera Pelléas et Mélisande of Claude Debussy, it was only one time after repeatedly led to the scene, he was his favorite book. He confided in an interview on the radio France Musique it was in harmony with the work as if he had written, and that before the record for EMI, he told the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic that all they had done with him until then was only a preparation for registration of Pelléas .

However, his name is above all associated with the "pillars" of the Germanic repertoire. His repertoire is actually one of the other leaders of his generation, or rather to the previous generation. If he shows in Mozart, especially in the 1950s, a relatively new natural nor Schubert or Schumann really are part of his universe [ref. required] . His interpretations of Haydn, and even more Bach , are not his specialty. The works of the twentieth century he led were carefully chosen: the Concerto for Orchestra by Bartók ,Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, the Symphony  10 of Shostakovich and others ( Honegger , Nielsen ). In the 1970s, he added to his repertoire some works of the " Vienna School "and Gustav Mahler (Symphonies  4, 5, 6, 9 and The Song of the Earth ). With Anton Bruckner also maintains the same relationship as heads born fifteen years before him if his 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th symphonies are part of the heart of his repertoire, he ventured only rarely in others that seem less suitable it. Ultimately the composers he most practiced, as exhaustively and in which there is the most recognized are Beethoven , Brahms , Tchaikovsky , Sibelius , Puccini , Wagner and Richard Strauss . Note, however, the importance he gave to the music of Sibelius, until he contractually required that its 4th Symphony on the agenda of his first concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Regarding his leadership style, he belongs to a generation of leaders Germanic culture and school, but influenced by some Latin, especially Italian chefs: especially Toscanini and De Sabata . Compared to leaders of a previous generation, this results in more stable tempos and greater transparency while maintaining an orchestral sound of Germanic culture, broad and strong. Although the style of Karajan has obviously evolved during his career, one can say that these characteristics are maintained, but with an increasing predilection for legato and sound.

Registered Composers [ edit | edit the code ]
Karajan and soprano Germaine Lubin, 17 May 1941.

The legacy of Karajan discography is considerable. Karajan recorded up to four or five times certain works (the Canon of Pachelbel, the symphonies of Beethoven , the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven, A German Requiem by Brahms ).

In 1972, when the Council of Europe was the Ode to Joy from Beethoven (9th symphony) official anthem, he asked Herbert von Karajan to write three arrangements for piano, wind instruments and orchestra. In 1985 the Ode to Joy became also the official anthem of the European Union. In alphabetical order (exhaustive list / bold his favorite composers)
 * Tomaso Albinoni ;
 * Johann Sebastian Bach , Mili Balakirev , Béla Bartók , Beethoven , Alban Berg , Hector Berlioz , Georges Bizet , Luigi Boccherini , Alexander Borodin , Brahms , Britten ,Anton Bruckner ;
 * Frédéric Chopin , Dmitri Shostakovich , Arcangelo Corelli ;
 * Claude Debussy , Léo Delibes , Antonín Dvořák ;
 * César Franck ;
 * Edvard Grieg ;
 * Joseph Haydn , Paul Hindemith , Arthur Honegger , Johann Nepomuk Hummel , Engelbert Humperdinck ;
 * Franz Lehár , Ruggero Leoncavallo , Franz Liszt , Pietro Locatelli ;
 * Gustav Mahler , Vincenzo Manfredini , Pietro Mascagni , Felix Mendelssohn , Modest Mussorgsky , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ;
 * Carl Nielsen ;
 * Jacques Offenbach , Carl Orff ;
 * Johann Pachelbel , Ildebrando Pizzetti , Amilcare Ponchielli , Sergei Prokofiev , Puccini ;
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff , Maurice Ravel , Ottorino Respighi , Emil von Reznicek , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , Gioachino Rossini , Albert Roussel ;
 * Camille Saint-Saëns , Franz Schmidt , Arnold Schönberg , Franz Schubert , Robert Schumann , Sibelius , Smetana , father Johann Strauss , Johann Strauss son , Josef Strauss , Richard Strauss , Igor Stravinsky , Franz von Suppe ;
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , Giuseppe Torelli ;
 * Ralph Vaughan Williams , Giuseppe Verdi , Vivaldi ;
 * Richard Wagner , Carl Maria von Weber and Anton Webern .

French Riviera [ edit | edit the code ]
Karajan was a regular on the French Riviera . This is also in Saint-Tropez, in early 1957, he met Eliette Mouret, a model 17-year-old from Mollans-sur-Ouvèze (Drôme), who became his third wife 18 October 1958, the day of 19 of the latter. He acquired the villa "La Palme" by the sea in Cape Saint-Tropez, at the entrance of the bay Canoubiers where successive sailboats were moored: the Helisara on which he participated in many regattas.

The complicity between the musician and the sea was in its infancy and, from 1938, he was acquiring his first sailboat, Karajanides. In 1967, he launched the first of six Helisara that will mark his life. This name is actually an acronym made ​​from the initials of his given name, that of his wife and two daughters (H) Ebert, (El) thrown into the (Is) and Abel (Ara) bel. Five boats will carry that name until Helisara VI, a maximum of 24 meters on which Karajan won many regattas.

He moved to Monaco his publishing house, Telemondial, who created the first video disc important in the history of video contemporary .

Awards [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Doctor Honoris Causa of the Waseda University

References [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Pierre-Jean Rémy ,  Odile Jacob .
 * Richard Osborne,  Archipelago, 1999  ( ISBN 2-841871894 )  .
 * Bruno Streiff,  Paris, Editions Complicités 2003 .
 * Peter Uehling,   Hermann Publishing, 2008 .

Videography [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Herbert von Karajan in rehearsal and performance (1965 (Schumann) 1966 (Beethoven)), realization Henri-Georges Clouzot, DVD Unitel 2006.
 * Franck Chaudemanche, "intimate Karajan" TV documentary, 55 min, France, 2008.

Related articles [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Berlin Philharmonic
 * Vienna Symphony Orchestra
 * Vienna State Opera
 * Philharmonia Orchestra
 * Orchestre de Paris