Is there such a thing as a Karajan “sound”? Beginning toward the end of his career, Herbert von Karajan began to attract criticism for having pushed his particular obsession clarity of an orchestra’s sound to the extreme. This New Year’s concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker is typical of his later interpretive approach: Karajan draws a particular sound out of the orchestra, but he and his musicians still take care to modulate that sound according to the repertoire they are playing. Their clear and precise performance of Weber’s brilliant Freischütz Overture is followed by their hypnotic string sound in Puccini and Leoncavallo’s two Intermezzi, culminating in the progressive and determined build-up of Ravel’s Boléro.
Coronation Mass & Ave Verum Corpus
Saturday, June 29, 1985: Herbert von Karajan and the Wiener Philharmoniker perform Mozart’s Coronation Mass with four of the greatest singers of the decade as part of a mass celebrated by Pope Jean Paul II at the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Ten thousand cardinals, bishops, diplomats from the world over, Italian political figures, and important personalities from the cultural scene are present. Two years earlier in during the pope’s visit to Austria, it was Karajan himself who suggested performing Mozart’s work in a religious service to the great religious leader.
Karajan conducts Famous Overtures
The collaboration between Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker was one of the most productive and influential in the history of music recording. Famous during his life for having re-recorded his emblematic repertoire (Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner) as a sort of definitive final artistic testament, the Austrian conductor also dedicated certain programs and recordings to fragments of works, all the while preserving pieces’ integrity and the rigor of his musical direction. This concert from 1985 is an example of his subtle and intelligent approach, combining overtures by Beethoven and Brahms into a single, illuminating program.
Ein Heldenleben
“It is entitled ‘A Hero’s Life,’ and while it has no funeral march, it does have lots of horns, horns being quite the thing to express heroism. Thanks to the healthy country air, my sketch has progressed well.” With these words Richard Strauss evoked the connections between his symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”. A great connoisseur of Strauss’s oeuvre, Herbert von Karajan tackled the piece in 1985 as part of a series including Don Quixote, Thus spoke Zarathustra, and Death and Transfiguration. The Austrian maestro’s authority and mastery express themselves with éclat in this performance featuring his trusted artistic collaborators, the musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Karajan conducts Dvorak 9
Invited by the progressive American arts patron Jeannette Thurber to become director of the naissant National Conservatory of Music of America in New York in October of 1892, Dvorak was initially hesitant to cross the ocean to accept her offer. Attached to his native country and boosted by his growing success on the European continent, his financial struggle to support his family of six children led him to say yes. His subsequent voyage would become the point of departure for one of the world’s most beloved symphonic works: his Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”, which combines traditional slavic folk music with the new American musical horizons he encountered. Karajan and the Wiener Philharmoniker honor the Czech composer’s magnificent chef-d’œuvre with this captivating performance.
Karajan conducts Dvorak 8
“You advise me to write small pieces but I find this difficult… how can I do this when no theme for a melody or work for piano comes to me? At the moment, my mind is full of great ideas — I will follow the will of God”. These words from Dvorak to his publisher Simrock (who wanted the composer to produce shorter, easier-to-sell works) show his determination regarding the writing of his symphonies. Premiered February 2, 1890 in Prague, the Eighth Symphony, optimistic and inspired by traditional music, was very well received by its audience. The maestro Herbert von Karajan and the Wiener Philharmoniker present a masterful interpretation in this 1985 concert in the Austrian capital.
Karajan conducts Bruckner 9
A passionate enthusiast for new technologies and new concert formats, Herbert von Karajan was a pioneer in the translation of the symphonic concert experience to film. One of the first to grasp the importance of film and CDs, would immortalize numerous works of the classical canon using these two mediums over the course of his career. Never satisfied with confining himself to musical direction, Karajan was heavily involved in the technical side of his recordings, going so far as to to dictate the placement of individual cameras. In this performance of Bruckner’s unfinished Symphony No. 9, Karajan’s talents as both music director and filmmaker are palatable: an exceptional testimony to both the maestro and this essential masterpiece of the pivotal transitional period between Romanticism and Modernism.
Ein deutsches Requiem
“Rather than a German Requiem, I should have called it a ‘human requiem’.” Brahms’s words reveal much about the universal character of his celebrated work. The Wiener Philharmoniker under the baton of the great Herbert von Karajan presents a performance of appropriate subtlety and timelessness. Brahms’s Requiem is different from the traditional mass for the dead in numerous ways: the words are in German and not in Latin, and the texts—drawn from Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible—emphasize life’s peaceful conclusion rather than making entreaties on behalf of deceased souls facing the Final Judgement. An incredibly hopeful Requiem whose all-inclusive message resonates through to the present day.
Missa solemnis
Longstanding artistic collaborators, the conductor Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker present a magnificent performance of one of Beethoven’s greatest masterpieces. At the age of 54 in 1824, Beethoven was at the height of his art: he would premiere both his Missa Solemnis and his celebrated Ninth Symphony in the same year! Despite total deafness, it is a testament to the brilliance of his works that they would influence European contemporary composers of all stripes, from Rossini and Schubert to Weber and Liszt. Beethoven suffered from illness constantly beginning in 1825, eventually dying two years later during a violent storm.