Martin Kettle on the conductor Herbert von Karajan
They don't make conductors like Herbert von Karajan any more. Maybe that's just as well. The Austrian conductor, who was born 100 years ago this month, dominated orchestral life in Europe from the mid-1950s until the mid-1980s. He cultivated and exuded the idea of the conductor as a figure of mystique, glamour and power. But by the time he died in 1989, the orchestral world was ready for less lofty podium presences.
Karajan's power and influence were not primarily exerted in the concert hall, though he was made conductor-for-life of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1955, nor in the opera house, where he was a dominant figure at Bayreuth and La Scala in the 1950s and in Vienna and at the Salzburg festival later on. His empire was built above all in the recording studio, then through the long-playing record and later the compact disc.No conductor, before or since, has dominated the mass marketing of classical music more singlemindedly, or for so long. His recordings remain benchmarks. At the peak of his influence, his support could make a young player or singer into a recording star: Anne-Sophie Mutter, Evgeny Kissin and Gundula Janowitz are among many whose careers were boosted by the Karajan connection - though he pushed others too hard. But Heribert Ritter von Karajan, as he was christened, was always master of his own universe. As a joke that went the rounds in Vienna many years later had it: "Mozart was born in Salzburg, the birthplace of Herbert von Karajan."Behind his back they called him the music director of Europe. Older conductors such as Otto Klemperer bemoaned the addiction to applause. Great artists such as Sviatoslav Richter lost patience with his preoccupation with image. The always ambitious Karajan's Nazi sympathies - he joined the Nazi party in 1933 - brought him early glories, but then dogged his reputation for decades. Great soloists such as Isaac Stern refused to play with him. But in the end his musicianship, his talent and his unbending ambition won out. After Walter Legge gave him a platform in the London recording studios in the 1940s and 1950s, where he made some of the greatest opera recordings of the LP age, his career never looked back.If you speak to anyone who worked with Karajan, there are occasional reservations about the man and his style, but only rarely about his outstanding conducting. Karajan concerts, even in his declining years, remained unmissable events - if you were fortunate enough to get a ticket. Like him or loathe him, Hugh Canning wrote in the Guardian on Karajan's 80th birthday, he remains the Don Juan of music, the eternal seducer. That influence still persists today, even from beyond the grave.Peter Alward, former vice-president, EMI ClassicsI first met Karajan in 1976, and we remained friends up to his death. He was one of EMI's flagship artists in the late 70s and early 80s; most of his operatic work was for us, his symphonic work for Deutsche Grammophon. Yes, he cultivated the cult of the maestro - he was a shrewd businessman and recognised his market worth. He was not slow in coming forward and speaking his mind, but no conductor is a shrinking violet. I feel he was misunderstood. There was the glamorous image - the jet-set lifestyle - but this was all a defence. He was really very shy, a simple man with simple tastes. I vehemently oppose the theory that he was a Nazi. He was an opportunist. I'm Jewish, and if I believed otherwise, I wouldn't have spent a minute in his company.Anne-Sophie Mutter, violinist There is no longer any orchestra that can accompany pianissimo as wonderfully as Karajan could. A small gesture from his little finger, and the orchestra was transformed into a velvet carpet. He was a man who knew how to convince, but he also allowed freedoms. However, he was a little fast with me. At 14 years old, I had to play Beethoven's Violin Concerto; I was completely overtaxed.Jon Vickers, tenorWorking with Karajan gave me a fresh appreciation of Wagner's Ring cycle because his whole approach emphasises the human, rather than the super-human. From a singer's point of view, his approach to Wagner was at once thrilling and fraught with vocal danger.John Culshaw, manager of classical recording for Decca, 1967-75Unwittingly [Karajan] had filled the void left by the death of Hitler in that part of the German psyche which craves for a leader. He was unpredictable, ruthless and outspoken. Nobody - at any rate nobody in Austria - ever questioned Karajan's right to do exactly what he wanted. He moved everywhere with a circle of sycophants, who tried to justify their existence by speaking for him whenever possible, and I had to make it clear right away that I could not function at one remove from the conductor. As always, the direct approach worked. I don't think Karajan ever understood how much of his troubles were due to the people he allowed to surround him. Such petty issues often distorted one's view of Karajan the musician.Sviatoslav Richter, pianistThe first time [David Oistrakh, Rostropovich and myself] found ourselves sharing the same platform was in Moscow, for Beethoven's Triple Concerto. It was a good concert, and it was clearly an attractive billing, as we were then invited to record the work with Karajan, with whom each of us had already worked on his own. It's a dreadful recording, and I disown it utterly. As for the actual recording sessions, I remember them only as a total nightmare. Battle lines were drawn up, with Karajan and Rostropovich on the one side and Oistrakh and me on the other. Rostropovich was falling over himself to do everything Karajan wanted, whereas Karajan had a superficial and clearly wrong-headed view of a work that has never had a good press, but of which I'm personally very fond.James Galway, Berlin Philharmonic's principal flute, 1969-75The first thing that struck me on joining the orchestra was that it had a style - a stamp put there by Karajan and his predecessors that modern orchestras no longer possess. When he did the big Wagner operas, he didn't conduct half the time. He just let the orchestra play because we had rehearsed so much. It was like playing chamber music. This was his approach to all music. It was like it was a big chamber orchestra. I've played with a lot of very good conductors, but Karajan was the greatest. He had charm, depth and a virtuoso spirit.Karajan's 10 best recordingsHumperdinck: Hansel und Gretel (1953) Schwarzkopf/Grummer/Philharmonia (Naxos or EMI)Recorded only in mono, this has remained the pre-eminent version of Humperdinck's masterpiece, with Karajan revelling in its orchestral richness and luxury casting.Verdi: Falstaff (1956) Gobbi/Schwarzkopf/Panerai/Philharmonia (EMI, two CDs)One of the glories of the early recording history of the Philharmonia and arguably the greatest of all Karajan's opera recordings, with a wonderful cast, led by Tito Gobbi in his glorious prime.Puccini: Tosca (1962) Price/Di Stefano/Taddei/Vienna PO (Decca)With both Leontyne Price and Giuseppe Di Stefano in their prime, and Karajan whipping up an orchestral storm, this remains one of the most involving Toscas on disc.Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 4 & 6 (1965, 1967) Berlin PO (DG)Karajan never recorded the early Sibelius symphonies, but succeeded with the most problematic of the later ones in a way that few others have approached; his Sixth remains unmatched.Strauss: Four Last Songs; Metamorphosen; Death and Transfiguration (1973, 1980, 1982) Janowitz/Berlin PO (DG)Gundula Janowitz was the ideal Karajan soprano, a serenely beautiful voice that he could treat almost instrumentally, while the Berlin strings excel in Metamorphosen.Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande; Verkl�rte Nacht (1974) Berlin PO (DG)Karajan found a lyricism in the works of the Second Viennese School that eluded other conductors. In Berg and Webern, he took too many liberties, but these sumptuous early Schoenberg scores suited him perfectly.Wagner: Parsifal (1980) Hofmann/Vejzovic/Moll/Berlin PO (DG)The greatest of his Wagner recordings, with the orchestral music realised with a beauty of tone that has never been surpassed on disc.Holst: The Planets (1981) Berlin PO (DG)Not much British music made it into the Karajan repertoire, but he recorded Holst's suite twice, with this second version one of the very first products of the digital age.Mahler: Symphony No 9 (1982) Berlin PO (DG)The crowning glory of his late conversion to Mahler, an incandescent live recording of the Ninth.Bruckner: Symphony No 8 (1988) Vienna PO (DG)Karajan's final Bruckner recording was this monumental account of the Eighth, the orchestral sound wonderfully terraced, the intensity of the playing never in doubtAndrew Clements · Interviews by Martin Kettle, Imogen Tilden and Volker Hagedorn. Jon Vickers from a 1969 interview in Opera Canada; Sviatoslav Richter from Notebooks and Conversations by Bruno Monsaingeon (Faber & Faber); John Culshaw from Putting the Record Straight (Secker & Warburg).
