Why is karajan great?

Herbert von karajan (born on April 5, 1908, and died on July 6, 1989).

During the period from 1938 to 1939, Italian conductor Victor de Sabata met karajan's conductor and said, "I have found a conductor with great power, and his musical thoughts will definitely influence the latter half century." Sure enough, Sabata's words were verified later.

Herbert von karajan1908 was born in Salzburg, Austria, where Mozart, the greatest talented composer in the world, was born. Karajan's ancestral home is Greek. His predecessors first came to Germany from Greece to engage in architectural design, and later relatives settled in Vienna. Karajan's father is the dean and surgeon of a hospital. He loved music and wanted to be a musician since he was a child, but he didn't realize this wish in the end. So karajan's study of music made his father feel particularly happy. Karajan's mother doesn't know much about music on the surface, but she can feel music in her heart. She is a Wagner fan.

Karajan has been performing on the stage since she was four and a half years old. His younger brother learned the piano earlier than he did, but he couldn't tolerate his younger brother being better than him, so he hid under the piano and eavesdropped on his younger brother playing the piano. For 15, karajan listened to his brother playing the same tune over and over again, which prompted karajan to work harder. Two months later, he caught up with his brother's playing level. Later, he came to Vienna alone and met a good teacher. After teaching him for three months, the teacher said to him, "If you feel that you can't express your thoughts with two hands, then become a bandleader, so there will be no tragic result." The teacher's teaching influenced karajan's life. Later, Karajan organized a concert in Salzburg. At that time, he just wanted to test whether it was successful.

He has been a bandleader since 18. He first served as a permanent conductor at the Ulm Opera House in Germany, and later as a music director at the Aachen Opera House. He stayed in these two small-scale opera houses for 16 years, and performed 5 or 6 operas every year. At that time, he had to conduct not only bands, but also singers and choirs.

While studying at the Vienna Conservatory of Music, karajan was lucky to meet a director. He often said to karajan, "You are nothing, and the band is everything!" From 65438 to 0937, Bruno Walter, then artistic director of vienna state opera, invited him to perform in Vienna. During the period from 1938 to 1939, Italian conductor Victor de Sabata saw Wagner's opera Tristan and isolde, which was conducted by karajan, and immediately went to Titin, the manager of the Vienna Opera House. At that time, Diding was the supreme ruler of German-Austrian classical music. Sabata said to Titin, "I have found a conductor with great power, and his musical thoughts will definitely influence the next half century." Sure enough, Sabata's words were verified later.

Karajan is proficient in the art of conducting. He knows what a singer needs and how to cooperate with him. His command skills are strange. It is impossible for people who meet karajan for the first time to really understand karajan. Many people think that karajan is a rude and indifferent person. In fact, he is naturally enthusiastic. When conducting, karajan insisted that the band musicians should listen to each other, and when playing for the opera, he asked the band to listen to the singers on the stage.

Karajan can speak English, Italian, French and German fluently. He is not only an excellent conductor, but also a person with great personality charm. The musicians have regarded him as a myth, and he is aware of this, so during the first rehearsal, he has been telling stories to the musicians, making them feel relaxed and letting the musicians fully understand his command intention. Many young musicians entered the ranks of professional performance with the help of karajan, and every musician was willing to play with karajan. He is good at cooperating with others and has done a lot for young people. He conducted and performed many classical music works and recorded many records.

Walter Legg, the head of EMI Records, knows karajan very well and can give him face-to-face advice. Karajan accepted Walter Legg's invitation and came to London to lead the British Philharmonic Orchestra into a glorious period with Walter. In addition to their frequent performances, they also recorded a large number of high-quality, exquisite classical music records, which have been widely circulated so far. Walter Legg therefore became a patron of the Philharmonic Orchestra.

During the period from 1938 to 1939, Italian conductor Victor de Sabata met karajan's conductor and said, "I have found a conductor with great power, and his musical thoughts will definitely influence the latter half century." Sure enough, Sabata's words were verified later.

1954 After the death of Futvingler, the Berlin Philharmonic was in trouble. At that time, the troupe was about to tour the United States. The manager of the orchestra said that karajan was the only one who inherited Futvingler. At that time, karajan was conducting Wagner's opera The Ring of Nibelungen at Scala Opera House in Milan. After receiving the invitation from Berlin Philharmonic, he said, "I can come to the United States to conduct the tour, but I must be the heir of Futvingler, not him.

When karajan led Berlin Philharmonic to the United States, people held a strange welcoming ceremony at the airport. As the heir of Futvingler, karajan and his band were warmly praised by the audience at their first performance.

In many films, karajan directs the performance and karajan acts as the director to some extent. When the director wanted to photograph karajan's hand, karajan asked the cameraman to put the camera on his shoulder, so that they could photograph the movements of his hand more clearly, thus avoiding the picture distortion caused by long-distance shooting. During the whole shooting process, karajan always worked tirelessly and even made many jokes.

Karajan never used a fat female singer to play the role in a musical. He thought that such a singer would make the audience close their eyes and not watch the performance on the stage, but he just wanted the audience to watch the performance on the stage with their eyes wide open. Karajan knows the stage like the back of his hand. Every corner of the stage is in his mind. He not only knows every musician, but also knows the firemen in the theater.

Karajan is not only an outstanding conductor, but also an excellent stage director. To this end, he spent a lot of energy and effort.

Karajan often said to his band: "The band must obey the singer and try to imitate the singer's timbre, and the singer should also try to imitate the band's timbre." He is very strict with the band during rehearsal, but when it comes to the formal performance, he always thinks of the musicians. His command is relaxed, confident and trustworthy, and his command has reached a perfect state.

Karajan has been the artistic director of Berlin Philharmonic since 1955. After more than ten years' efforts, karajan and the Orchestra have occupied an extremely important position in the world music scene.

Karajan believed that there would be an afterlife after death. He often says that he still has many things he wants to do, and even death can't stop him from going to work.

Karajan's Mystery of Nazi Identity

As a conductor, karajan first took the stage in the German town of Ulm, and soon showed his extraordinary talent. While he was working hard, the manager of the opera house didn't want to sign a contract with him. Although he appreciates karajan's talent very much, he thinks that Ulm is too small to benefit karajan's future development, so he suggests that karajan develop elsewhere.

Karajan went to Berlin, but Berlin was full of talents at that time, and an unknown young conductor in a small opera house like him couldn't find a suitable job at all. By chance, karajan met the theater manager in Aachen and was invited to guide the rehearsal there. Karajan rehearsed Federico, and after the performance in September, karajan was appointed as the music director of Aachen. Later, karajan rose rapidly in Aachen and became a famous German young conductor. 1935 replaced Rabe, the music director of Aachen, and became the youngest music director in Germany at that time (27 years old).

Rabe lost his position as the music director of Aachen, but he later became the director of the music department of the Cultural Bureau of the Third Reich. His immediate boss was Goebbels, who was also the propaganda minister. No matter how others argue that art and politics should not be linked, Goebbels' attitude is very clear. As soon as he took office, he announced: "Culture is the propaganda tool of the Third Reich."

According to karajan, he was under pressure to join the Nazi Party. "I'm not party member," he said. "When I was the music director of the Opera House in Aachen, I was not so conspicuous politically. However, when I signed the music director's contract, my secretary came to tell me that the head of the Nazi Party Department in Aachen had put down his words and said that my contract was difficult to pass: the person nominated as the music director was not party member! "

"To tell you, this is a question for me to compare. I especially like skiing. My companion is an Austrian tour guide, and I take him with me wherever I go skiing. Once we went to a mountain in Switzerland, but when we got there, I was told that we were not allowed to ski on the mountain unless we joined the local Swiss mountaineering club and hired Swiss guides. I wanted to ski there, so I said no matter the fucking conditions, so I bought a membership and hired a Swiss guide. For me, joining the Nazi party is like this. "

"The application for joining the Nazi Party in front of me is tantamount to a threshold. Crossing it means that I can get unlimited power and funds from the orchestra, so that I can freely conduct concerts, travel and perform, have my own secretary and office, and I will be happy as heaven. The condition is that you must join the Party and perform for party member from time to time. So I said it didn't matter what the fucking conditions were, so I signed the application. It's a pity that people have said since then:' of course you are a Nazi.' "

Karajan met a British friend at that time, then British diplomat in Zurich, Bian Leslie. Karajan once said to him, "I am willing to pay any price as long as I can get the job in Aachen." He recalled: "karajan has a strong sense of mission, which we must understand. Once I went to his apartment to pick him up for dinner. He went out for a walk and left me a note to wait for him. His room is full of religious books, some paragraphs are underlined, and there are comments made by his scrawled handwriting in the margin. When he came back, I asked him why he read these things. He told me that the existence of God is a fact and there are countless signs to prove it, not whether people are sincere or not. Mozart wrote a symphony when he was a child. That has nothing to do with heredity. Karajan said. The only explanation is that the creator chose some people to carry out his orders and create beauty for this ugly world. "I was given special tools," karajan said to me, "extraordinary talent. I never doubt that my talent is a gift from the creator. It is my responsibility to give full play to it. I am determined to create as perfect music as possible and dedicate it to as many people as possible. I want to put music on the screen. "

"Critics call karajan a conceited God," Leslie said, "and karajan will say that I am a tool of God. He showed no mercy in carrying out his task. He said to me, "I did some terrible things." But explained that it was necessary to complete the task. "

Regarding the date of karajan's joining the Party, the documents found now are different from karajan's statement. 1957, Paul Moore published an article about karajan called "Speculator". The article writes: "herbert von karajan joined the Nazi Party not in Aachen but in Salzburg, and was not forced to join in 1934. His time of joining the Party was1April 8, 933, exactly two months and eight days after Hitler came to power. His party member registration card number is 1-607525. He paid the party dues for that month, but returned to Germany at the end of April, and didn't get the party member registration card, so there was a little trouble in file management. However, after returning to Ulm, he clarified the situation and re-registered in May 1 65438,0933, and received the registration card of party member with the number of 3-4309 14. These facts are recorded in the Nazi Party's "celebrity archives" and stored in the archives center of the American diplomatic mission in Berlin, which seems to be more credible than herbert von karajan's own memories. "

Twenty-five years later, Fred Prieberg, a German music researcher, re-disclosed the relevant documents in his book "German Music under Nazi Rule", which proved that karajan "double-registered" to join the Nazi Party, and the date and party card number mentioned in it were consistent with the discovery of Moore 1959.

Karajan immediately reacted angrily to Pleiberg's release of the documents he got from the Berlin Archives Center. "This is fabricated, I'm too lazy to talk about it. Funny, Pleiberg wrote these things just to make money. "

A few months later, I personally went to the Berlin Archives Center to get those documents, including two copies of party member registration cards. I showed these things to Master Anif at his house. First, he asked me how I got it, and expressed his anger that this kind of thing can spread at will. Then he picked up the newspapers, stared at them with alert and curious eyes for a while, and then took them under the lamp to see them more clearly. "Where's my signature?" After looking at it carefully for a few seconds, he asked, "These things are unsigned, see?" I asked him what he thought, and he shrugged at me and said, "It's all fake." (The Nazi Party's party member registration card is unsigned and filled in by party officials. )

Strangely, the Nazi documents themselves found some records that contradicted karajan's statement. In the archives of Berlin Archives Center, there are some correspondence between Nazi Party departments and their branches, all of which are discussing a special topic: the time when karajan joined the Party. It is impossible to determine who started these communications and who first asked or asked questions to keep the bureaucratic machine busy, but as you can see from the remaining letters, their contents are coherent:

-1939 1.5. Lenny, the headquarters of the Nazi Party, sent a letter to the finance department of the Austrian Nazi Party about the qualification of karajan party member. According to the letter, karajan apparently joined the Party twice:1Salzburg on April 8, 939 (No.1-607525), and 1933 registered again in Ulm on May 8 (no change of address report). The letter asked whether the "temporary" party member qualification on April 8th counted.

-1On February 4th, 939, the representative of the Nazi Party in Austria (Vienna) wrote to the financial director of the Nazi Party in Munich, saying that the validity of karajan's application for joining the Party on April 8th should be decided by the Salzburg Party Department.

-1February 4, 939, the Nazi Vienna representative wrote to the head of finance of the Nazi Party Department in Salzburg, requesting to find out the above problems.

-1939 May 15, Salzburg "New Town" Group sent a letter to the financial director of the Salzburg Nazi Party. The head of the group said that he had talked with party member Herbert Klein, who signed karajan's party membership and charged a handling fee of 5 shillings. Klein said that he gave karajan a receipt and deposited the materials in the Nazi Party's party member recruitment office in Salzburg. After the Nazi Party was banned, karajan went to Germany. Klein said that he has never heard from karajan since then, and he thinks that karajan has never paid his dues in Austria. Klein is willing to clarify the facts as a witness. (This copy was copied to Munich)

-1On July 7th, 939, the headquarters of the Munich Party sent a letter to the Nazi finance director in Cologne-Aachen, announcing that karajan's party member qualification registered on April 8th, 933 was invalid because he didn't pay the membership dues, and the registration on May 8th, 933 was invalid. Please give your party member card to karajan.