The story of Herbert von Karajan

(1908-1926)

On April 5, 1908, it was a sunny Sunday. The Ernsts gave birth to another son, named Heribert ( Heribert Ritter von Karajan), later Herbert. Salzburg is a city with a strong musical atmosphere and the hometown of Mozart. The famous Salzburg Music Festival kicks off here every year. The Karajan family loved music. His father, Ernst, played the piano and clarinet, and often participated in various activities with the Mozarteum Orchestra and the Salzburg State Theater. Musicians in the city were happy to associate with the family. In addition to taking his children to symphony concerts, his father often held small concerts at home. It is not difficult to understand that the two brothers received piano training very early. The elder Wolfgang first studied music. In 1912, when Herbert was 4 years old, he also began to study piano with Franz Ledwinka. He studied basics at the Mozarteum Conservatoire in Salzburg for 10 years from the age of 8. This musical education is multi-faceted. In addition to continuing to study piano with Franz Ledwinka, he also participated in the choir in the church choir in Salzburg. In addition, he studied with Franz Sauer. harmony. It is worth mentioning that Karajan’s teacher of composition and chamber music, Bernhard Paumgartner, quickly discovered the potential in Karajan and showed fatherly care for him. Karajan often drove his teacher's military motorcycle wildly in the countryside. Boengartler not only aroused Karajan's interest in painting and sculpture, but it was also he who encouraged Karajan to embark on the path of conducting. In fact, the two parents are Herbert's most important teachers. In Karajan's family, the sons call their parents "you" (German: Sie, an honorific in German). Ernst was a serious man. He walks 25 minutes to work every day, thinking about the upcoming surgery on the way. This style undoubtedly deeply influenced Herbert in the future, allowing him to develop the habit of being fully prepared for everything. My mother is a kind and generous person. When Karajan was 12 years old, he lost his footing while climbing stairs and fell from a height of 20 meters. He suffered injuries to his foot joints and spine, which left him with lifelong consequences. His mother Mata's caring care for him was touching. According to Karajan's autobiography, he was once called a "child prodigy" because of his precocious maturity in piano, but he never spent any effort on this title. After five years of piano lessons, Karajan finally made his first performance as a pianist on Mozart Day on January 27, 1917. Two years later, on January 26, he played the concerto as a soloist, accompanied by his teacher Bongatterer. (1926-1929)

However, these small achievements in music did not seem to make his parents make up their mind to let the young Karajan make a living in music in the future. His mother, Mata, always hoped that Karajan could become a bank clerk. His pragmatic father once advised him: "I know you have talent in music, but you have to learn some practical skills to make a living." In order to comply with his father's wishes, Karajan wrote his graduation thesis "Thermodynamics and Internal Combustion Engines" in 1926. 》After completing his studies at the Mozarteum University of Music in Salzburg, he went to Vienna to study at the Vienna Technical University. However, he did not leave music, but insisted on learning, so while studying technology, he also enrolled in the Department of Music Science at the University of Vienna and studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts. He studied piano in Vienna with his new teacher, Joseph Hofmann, and also received his first lessons in his future career: conducting, from Alexander Wunderer and Franz Schalk. The young Karajan had all the musical talents of a pianist at that time. But later, just like Robert Schumann, the tendon sheath of Karajan's finger was seriously injured. Even though he made some absurd attempts to heal it, it did not get better, which forced him to stop on the road to becoming a pianist. And turn it to the future of command.

Alexander Wendel had a certain influence in Vienna’s musical life, but as a teacher, he may not be qualified. Karajan's knowledge of conducting came not primarily from his teachers, but from professional practice itself.

But Karajan learned something very important in Vienna, the opera repertoire and what was more rare - the top opera performances in Vienna at the time: Karajan did not have much opportunity to conduct the orchestra for practice, but he and his classmates came up with ways to pass the time.

On December 17, 1928, Karajan made his first conducting debut, directing the academy orchestra to perform the overture to Rossini's opera "William Tell". But he may have realized that it would be difficult for him, who was unknown at the time, to find a job in Vienna, so he decided to go back to Salzburg and give it a try. More than a month later, in order to showcase his talents, the young conductor made his public appearance in his hometown. He invited and conducted the Mozart Conservatory Orchestra, and the repertoire was Strauss's "Don Giovanni" and Chai Chai. Kovsky's "Fifth Symphony". The performance was a success, and Karajan won an opportunity for himself - the manager of the Ulm Stadttheater invited him to audition at his theater. After listening to Karajan's conductor again, the manager decided to hire the young man to conduct operas in the theater, with a monthly salary of about US$20. At that time, Karajan told his manager that he had never conducted any operas and that he would have to do some research before accepting the job. The manager's answer was simple: "No problem, just come and study." Thus, the post of Ulm became the official starting point of Karajan's conducting career. (1934-1945)

When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, German musical talents declined sharply. In that year, Bruno Walter, Klemperer, Erich Kleiber, Fritz Bush were forced to leave Germany. Works by composers of Jewish origin were banned, including Mendelssohn, Mahler or Sch?nbeeck. Hindemith's opera "Matisse the Painter" was banned, and Furtw?ngler made a fuss with the Nazis. He resigned from all his lifelong positions and temporarily retired at the age of 47.

In 1934, not long after these major events, Karajan received an important position - concert conductor and opera director of the Aachen Stadttheater. This theater was a level higher than the one in Ulm, with an orchestra of more than 70 people and a chorus of 300, and the choir was led by Wilhelm Pitz, who would become famous in the chorus world in the future. With such a staff, Karajan couldn't wait to stage Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung". Aachen was also Karajan's springboard to Berlin and Vienna. On August 21, 1934, he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at a private evening performance of works by Debussy and Ravel. On April 12, 1935, Karajan was appointed music director of the Aachen Stadttheater. At the age of 27, Karajan became Germany's youngest music director. However, Karajan had to make a compromise: he was forced to join the Nazi Party.

On June 1, 1937, Karajan was invited by Bruno Walter to conduct at the Vienna State Opera for the first time. The repertoire was Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde". This is an impressive victory. But Karajan also experienced the difficult working conditions of the Vienna Opera House: big rehearsals were cancelled, and in small rehearsals the leading actors had to leave to attend to some personal matters after singing a few lines. In the future, from 1956 to 1964, Karajan would realize these difficulties more clearly. In 1937, Karajan was invited to conduct a Berlin orchestra, but Karajan refused because the orchestra could not give him any time to rehearse. But soon, in 1938, the band agreed to Karajan's request to rehearse before performing. So Karajan collaborated with this orchestra for the first time on April 8, conducting Mozart's "Haffner" Symphony ("Haffner", also known as Symphony No. 35), Ravel's "No. 2" Daphne and Croy" Suite and Brahms's Fourth Symphony. And this orchestra was the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra that would collaborate with Karajan for 35 years.

On the personal front, Karajan married Amy Hogrove, the prima donna of the Aachen operetta, on July 26, 1938. The two owned a house in the woods near Aachen. . But Karajan focused more on his career. Hogrove's friendly relationship with Mrs. Goering helped Karajan march to Berlin. On September 30, 1938, he got the opportunity to conduct at the Berlin State Opera in Beethoven's "Fidelio". And on October 21st, it was Karajan’s moment of victory. His conduct of Tristan and Isolde caused an international sensation.

Berlin music critic van der Nuell called it "das Wunder Karajan".

With or without van der Noor's comments, Karajan began to make a name for himself in Berlin. Although he was rejected by the Berlin Philharmonic under Furtw?ngler, Karajan successfully established himself in Berlin. In November 1939, he accepted the position of conductor of the Berlin State Opera and concert director of the Prussian State Orchestra at the same time. Two jobs. He also staged his opera "Electra" in front of Richard Strauss on February 18, 1940, and received the composer's approval. Karajan also performed Wagner's works in occupied Paris. And his recording career was about to begin. He signed his first contract with a German record company until 1943. Karajan's first official recording was to conduct the Berlin Staatskapelle in a performance of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" Overture (these early recordings were collected and released by DG). (1945-1954)

Although the Second World War ended in 1945, the Allies had to investigate his identity as a former Nazi party member. Coupled with Furtw?ngler's obstruction, Karajan's semi-retirement seems to have no end in sight. He was banned from performing in Germany and Austria. But there is one exception: on January 12, 1946, Karajan performed with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Vienna Philharmonic Friends Society. He was originally invited to conduct Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, but the performances were canceled at the last minute at the insistence of the Soviet Union. Forced to cancel. Fortunately, Karajan got help from two people at this time, got out of the predicament and made a successful comeback. One was Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for the British EMI company at the time. The other is Karajan’s mentor and friend, the conductor Victor De Sabata.

From October to December 1947, Karajan collaborated with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to record Beethoven's "Eighth Symphony" and "Ninth Symphony" for EMI (the chorus of the latter was sung by Vienna The Wiener Singverein, which collaborated with Karajan for the first time in October of that year), as well as Schubert's Ninth Symphony and Brahms's German Requiem (Das deutsche Requiem).

After denazification, Karajan soon became one of the backbones of European musical life. The schedule in 1948 was tight. Karajan not only began to cooperate with the Lucerne International Music Festival (the cooperative relationship between the two lasted until 1988, except for 1960), but also participated in the Salzburg Music Festival that year, including Gluck's "Orfeo and "Eyudi", Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro", and two concerts with works by Haydn, Richard Strauss, Beethoven and Brahms. In terms of employment, he accepted the two positions of lifelong artistic director of the Vienna Singing Association and chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Wiener Symphoniker), and trained them into first-class music groups. On the other hand, in London, he worked closely with the Philharmonia, formed by Li Ge, and in the following years he successively produced a series of famous recordings, such as his collaboration with pianist Lipatti Recording of Schumann's Piano Concerto, Mozart's Horn Concerto with horn player Dennis Brain, and a series of operas with Liger's wife Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: "The Bat" , "Falstaff", "Hansel and Gretel.", "Ariadne in Naxos" and "Der Rosenkavalier", as well as his own first complete set of Beethoven symphonies . In 1952, he led the band on its first tour of the European continent.

From 1949, Karajan began to collaborate frequently with La Scala in Milan and became the director of its German performance season. Karajan was meticulous about his opera production, rehearsing for months. So although he only put one or two operas on the stage every year, they were all wonderful.

It is worth mentioning that Karajan has collaborated with Maria Callas, known as the "opera goddess", several times here, such as the famous "Lucia di Lammermoor" in 1954, and also worked for EMI He left recordings of operas such as "Trovatore" and "Madame Butterfly".

In 1949, Karajan once again conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Music Friends Singing Society Choir to perform works of Verdi and Beethoven at the Salzburg Music Festival. Not only the music festival in his hometown, but also Bayreuth also beckoned to Karajan. In 1951, the Wagner Festival reopened after the war. That year's festival was a truly spectacular event. Two of Wagner's grandsons, Wieland Wagner and Wolfgang Wagner, made their first production debut. Famous Wagner singers from all over the world gathered together. Kanna Pittsbush showed the audience his unique charm in interpreting Wagner's works - "Parsifal". Furtw?ngler also conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which will be unforgettable for future generations. As a junior, Karajan conducted the entire play of "Meistersinger of Nuremberg" on the opening night of the festival on July 27, and conducted "The Ring" together with Kanna Pittsbush. The following year, Karajan returned to the Bayruit stage to conduct Tristan and Isolde. These two performances on stage were both recorded, and were well received. Among them, the interpretations of "Meistersinger of Nuremberg" and "Tristan and Isolde" are even regarded as the best of all Karajan's interpretations. But just after these two successful performances, Karajan never returned to Bayruit's stage. After the war, the Berlin Philharmonic went through several crises. In addition to the orchestra itself needing to be rebuilt and personnel to be replenished, the issue of chief conductor always needed to be resolved. First, chief conductor Leo Borchardt was shot dead by soldiers in the occupied territories, and later by Young Sergiu Celibidache briefly took over. Furtw?ngler returned in 1947, but due to various internal and external factors, he had to stay until 1952 before making up his mind to take up the post of chief conductor of the orchestra. But at this time Furtw?ngler was already beyond his capabilities. His deafness became so severe that he needed Siemens to install wiring equipment for the podium so he could hear the orchestra. Furthermore, Furtw?ngler was not very popular and had tense relationships with other conductors. Even before Furtw?ngler's death from pneumonia on November 30, 1954, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was considering his successor, and the candidates were all talented conductors at the time: Kruitan, Celibida. Qi, Johum, Schuricht, and Karajan.

Furtw?ngler's return to the stage in 1948 also meant that Karajan had not been allowed to enter the major music cities of Vienna, Berlin and Salzburg before. Due to his busy schedule, he only had sporadic opportunities to contact the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

By 1953-54, Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic collaborated increasingly frequently. They not only recorded Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, but also attended the Festival Week Concert (Festwochenkonzert) together. These performances received enthusiastic praise from music critics of the time.

After this short-term adjustment, Karajan's succession is only a matter of time. Furtw?ngler passed away on November 30, 1954, just before the Berlin Philharmonic's tour of the United States. Karajan was in a hotel in Rome at the time. His secretary handed him an anonymous telegram from Vienna, which read "Le roi est mort, vive le roi." (French: The old king died, long live the new owner.) The next day, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra manager Gerhart von Westerman immediately called Karajan and asked him to become the orchestra's chief conductor. There may be many reasons why Westermann made this call. One of them was that the person responsible for the orchestra's visit to the United States in New York called him and said: Unless Karajan conducts it, there is no need to discuss the orchestra's trip to the United States.

As for Karajan, this orchestra was exactly what he wanted to have day and night. He once said: "I must get this band, because his quality fascinates me, and I also know what I will be able to achieve with this band. I want a lifetime contract for only one reason: I'm going to spend a lot of time with this band so that they can finally be on the same page as me.

I can't let a new congressman end our cooperative relationship just by talking about it. I have to admit that over the decades this band has grown into exactly what I dreamed it would be. ”

However, he still had a contract with Scala at the time. For this purpose, Karajan conducted an interview with his friend and boss Ghiringhelli, who knew that the Berlin Philharmonic position was suitable for him. On the other hand, the members of the Berlin Philharmonic also voted to approve Karajan's appointment, which means that Karajan will lead the orchestra. Beautiful. However, Karajan put forward a condition at this time, that is, the appointment document must be handed over to him before departure and his appointment must be officially confirmed.

In early 1955, the new pair set off. Boarding a flight to the New World, the trip was sponsored by West German Chancellor Adenauer. However, just a week before the band and Karajan arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, a wave of opposition almost killed the tour. The American Musicians Alliance and Local 802 published an article on the front page of the New York Times on February 20, titled "Musicians object to Nazi-led Berlin orchestra's concert here" ”. In fact, from February 8th to the 27th when the band officially kicked off its visit to the United States, the New York Times reported almost every day the protests against Karajan’s wartime Nazi identity in “Local 802”. The day after the article was published, he stated that although he and Karajan did join the Nazi Party, they did so purely to continue working at the time. Although this statement more inflamed the opposition, these objections were ultimately resolved. The reason for the success is simple, because the tour was funded by the West German government.

When the band arrived in the United States on February 25, everything was calm. Karajan only made a brief statement: “I’m not political, I’m just here as a musician. "Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic impressed American listeners and music critics with their sounds over the next six weeks. They performed in cities such as Washington, New York's Carnegie Hall, Cincinnati and Baltimore. Music critics overall It was positive. The protest reached its climax during the performance in New York, with people protesting outside the Carnegie Gate and flying pigeons with protest slogans. But even so, the performance was not affected.

This trip to the United States was a real trial period. Karajan had to submit answers to three parties: first, the audience and music critics, second, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and third, the West German government. However, in terms of art, Karajan must also be mature in moral and political aspects (such as whether he speaks and behaves appropriately in the United States, and whether he will be suppressed by opposition voices) in order to show that he is qualified for the position of chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. As early as March 5, when Karajan and his party were still staying in Pittsburgh, news had already spread that most members of the orchestra voted for Karajan to become their fourth permanent conductor. His appointment was made a few days after he and the orchestra returned to Germany. Confirmed by the Berlin government. Karajan was once again asked if he would inherit Furtw?ngler's mantle and lead the Berlin Philharmonic. He replied: "I accept it with great joy." "So, the scepter of the Berlin Philharmonic passed through Hans von Bülow, Nikisch and Furtw?ngler, and finally passed to Karajan. From 1956 to 1971, Karajan was very popular in Europe. He first He served as the artistic director of the Salzburg Music Festival for four years. In 1957, in addition to leading the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on its first visit to Japan, he was also appointed as the artistic director of the Vienna State Opera to transform this historic venue. The opera house is in decline. His other titles include: becoming the lifelong conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1967, the lifelong director of the Vienna Singing Association, one of the chief conductors of La Scala in Milan, and succeeding Charles who died in 1969. · Charles Munch served as the music consultant of the Paris Orchestra

In addition to touring India, the Philippines, Hong Kong and the United States in the autumn of 1959, Karajan also performed again with the Vienna Philharmonic. Recorded for DG, and produced his first stereo album with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Strauss's "Heroic Life", which also marked the beginning of the Berlin Philharmonic, Karajan and the German record company Audio Triangle The beginning of a long collaboration.

Although Karajan had a recording contract with EMI at the time, the Berlin Philharmonic had signed a contract with a German record company. The contract therefore needed to be modified so that the pair could record for both labels at the same time. Karajan's recording activities under EMI continued until 1984, and he recorded many operas, as well as some works that had never been recorded for DG, such as Schubert's complete symphonies.

With the support of the Berlin Philharmonic and major record companies, Karajan began to plan to record orchestral works in the classical music world on a large scale. However, in the three years from 1959 to 1961, he only cautiously recorded some orchestral showpieces, such as Brahms's "Hungarian Dances" and several pieces from Antonin Dvo?ák's "Slavonic Dances" , as well as some dance music by Delib and Chopin, but once these recordings were made, they became classics. By the end of 1961, Karajan finally began to take big action, recording the complete set of St. Beethoven's symphonies for DG Company, which was completed in 1962, commonly known as the "Red Card". To this day, even though there are countless complete sets of Beethoven's symphonies on the market, this set of recordings is still dazzling and highly praised. In fact, Karajan had already begun preparing for this recording when he took over the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. On the eve of his first tour of the United States, he rehearsed "The Fifth." "No. 7" was staged three times from 1955 to 1959. Before the recording began, except for "Second" and "Eighth", he had played the other symphonies at least once in concert.

With the same meticulous preparation, Karajan and the orchestra also recorded Brahms' complete symphonies and Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos" in 1963 and 1964. The Berlin Philharmonic finally welcomed its home, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, on October 15, 1963. The hall was built to Karajan's technical standards. Just as Wagner did for the opening of the Bayreuth Festival Theater, Karajan conducted the orchestra to play Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" in a festive display.