Maestro Herbert von Karajan – an extraordinary personality

Herbert von Karajan (April 5, 1908 – July 16, 1989) was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor, one of the most renowned 20th century conductors. His obituary in the New York Times described him as "probably the world's best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music." Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for thirty-five years. He is the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, estimated at 200 million records sold.

Herbert von Karajan was the son of an upper-bourgeois Salzburg family. The Karajan family is said to have originally been Aromanian (Vlach) or Greek, from the region of Macedonia . His great-great-grandfather, Georg Johannes Karajanis was born in Kozani, a town in the Ottoman province of Rumelia (present West Macedonia in Greece), leaving for Vienna in 1767, and eventually Chemnitz, Saxony. He and his brother participated in the establishment of Saxony's cloth industry, and both were ennobled for their services by Frederick Augustus III on June 1, 1792, thus the prefix "von" to the family name. The Karajanis name became Karajan.

Karajan was born in Salzburg, Austria as Heribert Ritter von Karajan. He was a child prodigy in piano. From 1916 to 1926, he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he was encouraged to study conducting.

In 1929, he conducted Salome at the Festspielhaus in Salzburg, and from 1929 to 1934, Karajan served as first Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Ulm. In 1933, Karajan made his conducting debut at the Salzbur Festival with the Walpurgisnacht Scene in Max Reinhardt's production of Faust. Thefollowing year, and again in Salzburg, Karajan led the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time, and from 1934 to 1941, Karajan conducted opera and symphony concerts at the Aachen opera house.

In 1935, Karajan's career was given a significant boost when he was appointed Germany's youngest Generalmusikdirektor and was a guest conductor in Bucharest, Brussels, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Paris. Moreover, in 1937, Karajan made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin State Opera with Fidelio. He enjoyed a major success in the State Opera with Tristan und Isolde and in 1938, his performance of the opera was hailed by a Berlin critic as Das Wunder Karajan (The Karajan miracle), claiming that his "success with Wagner's demanding work Tristan und Isolde sets himself alongside Furtwängler and de Sabata, the greatest opera conductors in Germany at the present time". Receiving a contract with Deutsche Grammophon that same year, Karajan made the first of numerous recordings by conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin in the overture to Die Zauberflöte. On July 26, 1938, he married his first wife, operetta singer Elmy Holgerloef. They would divorce in 1942.

Adolf Hitler did not appreciate Von Karajan's performance of Die Meistersinger June 2, 1939 according to Winifred Wagner because Karajan, who was conducting without a score, lost his way, the singers halted and the curtain was rung down in confusion. According to Winifred Wagner Hitler decided that Von Karajan was not ever to conduct at the annual Bayreuth festival. However as a favourite of Hermann Göring he would continue his work as conductor of the Staatskapelle (1941-1945), the orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, where he would accompany about 150 opera performances in total.

On October 22, 1942 at the height of the war, Karajan married his second wife, Anna Maria "Anita" Sauest, née Gütermann, the daughter of a well-known sewing machine magnate, and who, having a Jewish grandfather, was considered Vierteljüdin (one-quarter Jewish). After the wedding, the NSDAP decided that she was to become one of Germany's five "honorary Aryans". By 1944, Karajan was, by his own account, losing favor with the Nazi leaders, but he still conducted concerts in wartime Berlin on February 18, 1945 and fled Germany with Anita for Milan a short time later. Karajan and Anita divorced in 1958.

Karajan was discharged by the Austrian denazification examining board on March 18, 1946 and resumed his conducting career shortly thereafter.

In 1946, Karajan gave his first post-war concert, in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic, but he was banned from further conducting activities by the Soviet occupation authorities because of his Nazi party membership. That summer, he participated anonymously in the Salzburg Festival. The following year, he was allowed to resume conducting.

In 1948, Karajan became artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna. He also conducted at La Scala in Milan. However, his most prominent activity at this time was recording with the newly-formed Philharmonia Orchestra in London, helping to build them into one of the world's finest. Starting from this year, Karajan began lifetime long attendance of the Lucerne Festival.

In 1951 and 1952, he conducted again at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.

In 1955, he was appointed music director for life of the Berlin Philharmonic as successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler. From 1957 to 1964, he was artistic director of the Vienna State Opera. He was closely involved with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival, where he initiated the Easter Festival, which would remain tied to the Berlin Philharmonic's Music Director after his tenure.

On October 22, 1958, he married, as his third wife, model Eliette Mouret. They became parents of two daughters, Isabelle and Arabelle.

He continued to perform, conduct and record prolifically until his death in Anif in 1989, mainly with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic.

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Source:

www.wikipedia.org