- Herbert Von Karajan Vivaldi Wikipedia
- Herbert Von Karajan Biography
- Herbert Von Karajan Music
- Herbert Von Karajan Beethoven 9th
- Herbert Von Karajan Discography
- Herbert Von Karajan Anne Sophie Mutter Vivaldi
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Classic FM examine the fascinating private and public lives of legendary conductor Herbert von Karajan
Once heard, never forgotten – that’s the Herbert von Karajan sound. You’ll only hear it on recordings now (the legendary German conductor of the great Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra died in 1989), but it’s so clear and immediate it’s as if the orchestra has somehow morphed from the CD to perform live in front of you.
And what fabulous playing… Using a massive string section as the orchestra’s emotional powerhouse, underpinned by searing brass and timpani, complemented by liquid-toned woodwind, all fine-tuned and blended to perfection, Karajan achieved results that were as beguiling as an exotic perfume.
Inspired by years of practising meditation and yoga, Karajan cultivated a sensuous web of sound that moved seamlessly from one moment to another, as though suspending time itself.
Karajan’s interpretations were like the man himself: confident, complex, lyrical, assertive, sensuous. All human emotion was there because Karajan knew no bounds, living his life to the full and revealing its many faces to us. Maestro, dictator (at least in some eyes), playboy, businessman and family man – there was no one quite like Karajan.
For much of the time he conducted with his steely blue eyes shut. The lower half of his body hardly moved, while his hands and arms hovered over the orchestra to hypnotic effect. In music of a more thrusting nature, he exuded a leonine intensity that swept players along in its wake. As with all truly great conductors, the slightest gesture from the podium was enough to make an orchestra alter its sound in an instant. So close was the connection between even tiny changes in tempo and his own heart-rate (which fluctuated accordingly) that he found it impossible to conduct at high altitude, as his accelerated breathing patterns conflicted with the music’s natural flow.
Through a combination of visionary musical instinct, political savvy and meticulously cultivated self-image, he inspired a cult following, rivalled only by Leonard Bernstein in his lifetime. At the helm of the world’s two finest orchestras – the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic – Karajan’s recordings sold in unprecedented quantities and his concerts played to sell-out audiences.
Although in later life there were critical rumblings behind the scenes about his lavish lifestyle, links with the Nazi party and autocratic demeanour, his film-star status and charisma made him the toast of musical Europe.
The central Austro-German tradition – Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Wagner and Strauss – was Karajan’s main hunting ground. Yet he also achieved outstanding results in the Russian, Italian and French repertoires, whether in the concert hall or opera house – where he spent almost as much time working with the singers as with the orchestra. He even managed to turn revolutionary figures such as Schoenberg, Berg and Webern into bestsellers.
Karajan spearheaded filmed recordings of his repertoire, first with Unitel and then his own production company, Telemondial, during the 1980s. These were planned and directed by Karajan himself and shot mainly in Berlin’s Philharmonie, an arts complex that he also helped mastermind. All of this took vast sums of money, accrued from the unprecedented fees that Karajan commanded not just for himself but for his players and singers.
Karajan’s life away from the conductor’s podium was both glamorous and demanding. Shattering the mould of Germanic music directors as dour and unphotogenic, he sported designer roll-neck sweaters and elegantly swept-back hair. In the little spare time available to him, Karajan indulged in a range of playboy pursuits to which he applied the same high standards that he insisted upon when working.
After a concert he liked nothing better than to get behind the wheel of his Porsche. When at the helm of his yacht, Karajan would steer the craft as he might a soloist through a concerto, reacting to the sea’s every ebb and flow with empathic precision. His lifelong devotion to the principles of Zen helped take him to higher planes of existence, whether he was deep-sea diving, skiing, mountain-climbing or piloting his jet aircraft. He sought the same kind of perfection when holding a joystick as he did a baton.
Karajan’s fascination with mechanical devices and technological advances extended to his music-making. In 1962, when many of his colleagues were still struggling to come to terms with advances in recording technology, Karajan astutely produced the first complete stereo Beethoven symphony cycle.
He also fully embraced the digital era with its revolutionary new sound carrier – the compact disc. This inspired a series of landmark recordings of works he had previously never recorded, including Strauss’s Alpine Symphony and Wagner’s Parsifal. These and countless other award-winning releases continue to hold listeners fascinated and enthralled and set the gold standard by which others are invariably judged. With Karajan’s death in 1989 (and Bernstein’s a year later) the golden age of conductor-kings was over.
Hail King Karajan!
1908 Born in Salzburg on April 5
1933 Salzburg Festival debut
1934 Vienna Philharmonic debut
1937 Vienna State Opera debut
1938 Berlin Philharmonic debut
1947 Philharmonia Orchestra debut
Herbert Von Karajan Vivaldi Wikipedia
1948 La Scala Milan debut
1955 Appointed principal conductor-for-life of the Berlin Philharmonic
1956 Appointed artistic director of the Salzburg Festival
1957 Appointed artistic director of the Vienna State Opera
1967 Founds the Salzburg Easter Festival
1969 Establishes the Herbert von Karajan Foundation
1981 Officially endorses the compact disc at the Salzburg Easter Festival
1989 Dies in Salzburg on July 16
The Essential Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic
Mahler Symphony No.9
Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan
For a reading that views the Ninth as the sunset of the Viennese symphonic tradition, Karajan ‘live’ remains unsurpassed.
DG 439 0242
Puccini La Bohème
Mirella Freni (sop), Luciano Pavarotti (ten), Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan Awesomely cast, electrifyingly played – this will leave your emotions in tatters.
Decca 421 0492
Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos 4-6
Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan
White-hot readings from Karajan, featuring scorching playing of devastating command and impact.
DG 073 4384 (DVD)
Details At A Glance
| Category | Music | Biography - Cast Programme Notes | |
| Rating | |||
| Year Released | 1990 | ||
| Running Time | (not 46 minutes as stated on packaging) | ||
| RSDL/Flipper | No/No | ||
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Director | Herbert Von Karajan Ernst Wild |
| Studio Distributor | Sony Music | Starring | Herbert Von Karajan Anne-Sophie Mutter Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra |
| Case | Black Brackley | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | Antonio Vivaldi |
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | English (Linear PCM 2.0 48/16) English (Dolby Digital 5.1) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
| Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | ||
| Macrovision | Yes | Smoking | No |
| Subtitles | No | Annoying Product Placement | No |
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Plot Synopsis
Herbert Von Karajan Biography
It is somewhat difficult to believe nowadays, in the light of over 100 compact disc recordings of the works, but The Four Seasons was virtually unknown in the mid-1950s, and had been for over two hundred years. Mind you, in a comparatively short space of time, it has sure made up for it, with it now being the most recorded piece of classical music around. You can get The Four Seasons in all sorts of performances and in all sorts of price ranges on compact disc, so I guess it was kind of inevitable that it would be an early release on DVD. And so it is that the legacy of Herbert Von Karajan on video takes something of a hard turn away from the symphonic repertoire that has been its staple thus far and heads into the baroque repertoire that really is not the forte of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in my view. This time the orchestra is lead by Herbert Von Karajan from the continuo, with the solo violin parts being contributed by the Teutonic Ice Maiden,Herbert Von Karajan Music
Anne-Sophie Mutter. She may be a talented fiddler, but does she actually enjoy doing what she does? Over the years, I have barely seen a photograph of her smiling, and this entire performance seems to draw its character from her Teutonic stolidity, and even in the very undeserved rapturous ovation at the conclusion of the work she barely cracks a smile.Antonio Vivaldi composed over 550 concertos of all kinds, and in that body of work he demonstrated an amazing degree of vitality and ingenuity and freshness that has resulted in the rediscovery over the last forty years of some truly wonderful music. Such gems as his 27 solo cello concertos are even today barely making it into the music catalogue, and yet the music borders upon the divine. So much of this great composer's work remains unrecorded, yet The Four Seasons get recorded so regularly that barely a month goes by without a new version appearing on compact disc somewhere around the world. Amongst all those recordings that have been made, there are a few stand-outs and a whole heap of dogs. I can with all honesty state that this is not a stand-out performance. Where it falls on the scale thereafter I leave to your imagination. The essence of Vivaldi's work, and indeed in all of the music of the Baroque period is in the freshness and vitality of the music. This is music that is as uplifting as you can get in purely orchestral music. You would not know it from this stolid and uninspiring performance. Recorded on 28th October, 1987 at the opening concert of the Chamber Music Hall at the Berlin Philharmonie, the audience ovation to the piece is sadly misguided. Mind you, in 1987 Herbert Von Karajan so ruled Berlin from a music point of view that had he come out and played chop sticks on a set of bongo drums, he would have received rave reviews. I believe the technical term is cloth ears - you would certainly need them to rave over this performance.
A stolid, uninspiring performance of the most popular piece of classical music of all time, this is not something that I would be jumping up and down about. Add to that the fact that this has received a fairly mediocre video transfer and there is little to induce me to recommend it at all. You would need to be a seriously hard-core Herbert Von Karajan or Anne-Sophie Mutter fan to consider this worthy enough of indulging in a purchase.
Transfer Quality
Video
One thing that is at least remarkably consistent about these releases from the video legacy of Herbert Von Karajan is the fact that in general the quality of the video mastering does the best that it can with the source material available. This is another good example of a transfer that is limited by the source material.The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced. This is another of the PAL transfers from Sony, presumably sourced from Europe, rather than an NTSC transfer.
Unfortunately, this particular transfer suffers more than most releases in the series from the limitations of the source material. At best, the sharpness can only be described as average, as significant portions of the transfer seem to be subtly out-of-focus, and this is not aided by a rather restricted depth of field to the video. Combined with the rather more obviously out-of-focus sections of the video, and it has to be said that I am just a little disappointed with the image presented here. The overall detail is not particular great as a result, although the longer shots of the interior of the hall show a distinct improvement in this regard. Shadow detail is not much of an issue here as there is limited scope for it to become an issue thanks to the roundish design of the hall and the generally all-encompassing lighting adopted. What really harms the transfer is that it suffers quite extensively from grain, ranging from quite mild to pretty awful, with a tendency towards the latter end of the scale more frequently than the former end. There does not appear to be any significant problems with low level noise in the transfer.
There is a distinct lack of quality in the colours here, although it has to be said that the rather muted colours are probably more the result of the clothing worn by the performers rather than anything else. Predominantly blacks, they are also mildly annoying in not really being deep in tone. The colour is distinctly light black/dark grey in feel rather than something nice and deep in colour. The overall tone seems to be a little on the anaemic side of the scale, and this really could have done with a bit of manipulating to overcome the blandness of the source material. There is no hint of oversaturation of colours at all and colour bleed is also not a problem.
There are no problems with MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts are again confined to some minor aliasing problems, once again mainly on the string instruments. Film artefacts were absent from the transfer.
| Dialogue |
| Audio Sync |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts |
| Surround Channel Use |
| Subwoofer |
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Extras
Menu
Well at least it is consistent with the other boring-looking efforts in the series.Biography-Herbert Von Karajan
A decent if not especially voluminous effort. Given the capacity of the DVD format though, I would have thought that a more extensive effort would not go astray, nor would a few more photographs of one of the most famous conductors of the twentieth century.Programme Notes
Reasonable enough stuff again I suppose, but again I cannot help but feel that more could have been done here with both the composer and the composition. R4 vs R1
As far as I can determine, the Region 1 and Region 4 versions have identical content, making Region 4 the version of choice owing to PAL formatting.Summary
Another typical example of theHerbert Von Karajan Beethoven 9th
Herbert Von Karajan legacy on home video, albeit in repertoire not entirely suited to the vaunted strings of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The whole programme is let down by a fairly stolid performance in my view from Anne-Sophie Mutter and I have to rate this is a disappointment. It is also a pity that some variety could not be shown in the extras package - I would have thought that Anne-Sophie Mutter could at least have rated a few pages of biographical notes.Ratings (out of 5)
| DVD | Pioneer DV-515; S-video output |
| Display | Sony Trinitron Wega 80cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in |
| Amplification | Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
| Speakers | Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL |
Herbert Von Karajan Discography
Herbert Von Karajan Anne Sophie Mutter Vivaldi