“The whole world is a jest, man was born a great jester…” So goes the brilliant conclusion to Verdi’s Falstaff, an opera inspired by Shakespeare’s beloved comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. The virtuosic score requires a particularly talented cast, not to mention a truly exceptional conductor. Herbert von Karajan perfectly fits the bill, and this performance featuring the Wiener Philharmoniker and an all-star group of singers is clearly worthy of Verdi’s powerful work, a masterpiece whose comic facade thinly veils the complex and sometimes even tragic characters’ struggles.
Messa da Requiem
Herbert von Karajan recorded Verdi’s Requiem multiple times over the course of his career, such that it became one of the signature works of his repertoire. In this film, he brings together an exceptional group of some of the late 20th century’s greatest singers: Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Agnès Baltsa, José Carreras, and José van Dam. Composed between Aida and Otello, the Messa da Requiem is dedicated to his friend, the poet Alessandro Manzoni, who had participated in the Italian unification movement, the Risorgimento. The technically and artistically challenging work was described by Verdi’s contemporary, the conductor Hans von Bülow, as an “opera in ecclesiastical garb”, an interesting expression of the fascinating tension between the theatrical and the religious in this monumental chef-d’oeuvre.
Karajan conducts Tchaikovsky 6 “Pathetique”
Premiered in 1893 in St. Petersburg with Tchaikovsky on the podium, the Sixth Symphony—later nicknamed “Pathetique”—was met with lukewarm reception before achieving success a few months later under the baton of Napravnik, barely 9 days before the death of the composer! Dedicated to his nephew, Tchaikovsky explained that he had “put my whole soul into this work”, and a tragic aura has remained associated with his ultimate symphonic composition. Discover this powerful work in an exceptional performance with maestro Karajan at the head of the Wiener Philharmoniker.
Karajan conducts Tchaikovsky 5
Herbert von Karajan leads the Wiener Philharmoniker in Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony at Vienna’s Musikverein in this exceptional archival video footage. Premiered in 1888 with the conductor himself at the baton, the Symphony No. 5 proved popular with audiences while being heavily criticized by the press, hurting the composer emotionally. The work develops a single theme over the course of four movements in a similar fashion to the “Manfred” Symphony, written a few years previously. Beyond the work’s obvious beauty, the demanding and nuanced interpretation of Karajan allows us to appreciate its particular structural details as well.
Karajan conducts Tchaikovsky 4
Tchaikovsky described his Fourth Symphony in a letter to Nadezhda von Meck as “perhaps the best I have written so far”. With allusions to Beethoven’s Fifth and an obsessive exploration of the idea of destiny (introduced the imposing initial fanfare), the symphony took shape at toward the beginning of Tchaikovsky’s platonic relationship with Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy widow who became the composer’s patron, and to whom the work is dedicated. The Symphony’s premiere on February 10, 1878 in Moscow under the baton of Nikolai Rubenstein was met with a lukewarm audience reception, yet despite this difficult start, the work was performed a month later in St. Petersburg to an adoring public who demanded an encore! Herbert von Karajan and the Wiener Philharmoniker perform the work with all the energy, rigor, and subtlety for which they were celebrated.
Mozart Requiem
Experience Mozart’s Requiem, founding work of the Western classical music canon, in one of the best performances ever captured on film featuring Herbert von Karajan, the Wiener Philharmoniker, and four brilliant soloists. Today, the Requiem is without a doubt one of Mozart’s most performed and beloved works, but its origins remain mysterious and its score left unfinished by the genius creator who prematurely died during its composition at the age of 35.
Karajan in Japan
Join the maestro Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker for this eclectic and striking program featuring three masterpieces of the orchestral repertoire! The concert begins with Mozart’s Divertimento No. 17 in B-flat Major. Composed in 1777, the work incarnates Classicist ideals of with its apparent simplicity disguising great sophistication. Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem Don Juan follows: premiered in 1888, the work narrates the story of the famed libertine with a highly virtuosic score. The concert draws to a close with Ottorio Respighi’s Pines of Rome (1924), for which Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker prove to be the ideal interpreters of its complex and brilliant orchestration.
Karajan conducts Bruckner 8
Nearly a century after its premiere in Vienna in 1892, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 receives a brilliant interpretation by the great conductor Herbert von Karajan and the Wiener Philharmoniker—the direct orchestral descendant of the ensemble that gave the masterpiece’s very first performance! Encouraged by the triumph of his Seventh Symphony, Bruckner produced his Eighth after three years of intense work, pushed by the implacable conductor Hermann Levi to make so many revisions that it became a “suicidal obsession”. Even with Levi’s demands, the Eighth would prove to be one of the longest symphonies in the history of music!
Jubilee Concert – 100 Years Berliner Philharmoniker
Who better than Herbert von Karajan, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s only conductor-for-life, to celebrate the 100th anniversary in 1982 of the orchestra’s founding? In this exceptional concert, the famous Austrian maestro conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”, whose lively revolutionary character that perfectly suits the orchestra’s vast interpretive powers and corresponds well with the mood for the celebration of the founding of the trail-blazing orchestra a century before.
Karajan conducts Debussy & Ravel
Celebrated for his intimate knowledge of the symphonic contributions of German Romanticism’s great masters, Herbert von Karajan also explored the masterpieces of French composers with the Berliner Philharmoniker in great detail. His almost-obsessive quest for sonic perfection was particularly intriguing when applied to French Impressionism, like the classic works featured here. Debussy’s La Mer depicts the magnificent land- and seascapes associated with the ocean and draws inspiration from the visual artwork of Turner and Monet, and the Suite No.2 from Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé paints its subjects so clearly that the listener can almost see them. It was the composer himself who spoke of a “choreographic symphony” bringing the love story of the shepherd and his lover to life.