{"id":426,"date":"2021-06-05T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/der-bussard.de\/en\/?p=426"},"modified":"2023-06-29T19:11:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T17:11:07","slug":"herbert-von-karajan-the-great-meteor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/der-bussard.de\/en\/2021\/06\/05\/herbert-von-karajan-the-great-meteor\/","title":{"rendered":"Herbert von Karajan: The Great Meteor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan and Seiji Ozawa sit together and discuss who of the four is the greatest conductor. Ozawa argues that he not only has the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which is an absolutely outstanding orchestra, but that he is something of a trademark in Japan. Nikon, Honda, Ozawa – that’s probably on a par in popularity. Solti replies that he has even been ennobled for his musical merits, and that he conducts the best orchestra in the world in Chicago, according to Stravinsky. Bernstein smiles in victory: he is equally important as a conductor and composer. And even the good Lord himself had asked him to compose his Mass<\/em>. Karajan then looks him over and replies sharply: ‘I didn’t do that!\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This joke describes the musical status Karajan enjoyed in the music world for decades: Even if Karajan was against such stylization of himself, the claim that characterizes Karajan as a “musical god” carries a grain of truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 22, 1938, a music review in the B.Z. am Mittag stated: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not possible to classify Herbert von Karajan in common terms. He is neither a rhythmist nor specialized in sound, neither a typical opera conductor nor a symphonic composer. He is everything at once. (…)” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The review was entitled: “The Miracle Karajan.”
This expression angered the conductor, as he confessed almost forty years later in 1977: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Oh no! I was not a miracle at all! At the time, this criticism got me into terrible trouble and actually only held me back.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That criticism was preceded by his engagement at the Berlin State Opera: Heinz Tietjen, general director of the Prussian State Theater, was initially hesitant to hire the thirty-year-old Karajan. After Tietjen had witnessed his first rehearsal with Karajan at the conductor’s podium, he said to him, “So you are the great meteor…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The von Karajan family <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In an interview, von Karajan said he made nothing of his upper-class ancestry: his family emigrated from Macedonia in 1767, first to Vienna and then to Chemnitz. There, his great-great-grandfather built up a textile company with his brother: Due to their great success, both were elevated to hereditary German imperial nobility in 1792.
Karajan’s great-grandfather was elevated to hereditary Austrian knighthood in 1869. However, this title lapsed in 1919 when the Austrian nobility was abolished: Thus the name suffix von remained from the German nobilitiation, to which von Karajan always attached great importance.
Despite this background, which had quite little to do with music, Karajan could only embrace music, as he himself once put it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study of technology<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Karajan initially studied engineering for three and a half semesters \u2013 during these studies, however, it was confirmed that he was drawn more to conducting than to engineering.
Nevertheless, von Karajan remained enthusiastic about technology throughout his life: he was interested in airplanes and especially automobiles. It was no coincidence that the famous von Karajan racing cars were built: With these cars, the conductor pursued the second great passion of his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany’s youngest general music director<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 1935, Herbert von Karajan was appointed Germany’s youngest general music director in Aachen at the age of 27.
Until 1945 followed a period during which Karajan conducted at various music houses in Germany and Austria.
Starting in 1939, Karajan conducted the Berlin State Opera: due to a conflict with the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtw\u00e4ngler, Karajan very rarely conducted the Philharmonic before 1953.
Instead, he performed concerts with the opera orchestra under the name Preu\u00dfische Staatskapelle <\/em>[Prussian State Band] during the years of World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n