Herbert von Karajan (Salzburg April 5, 1908 Anif near Salzburg – July 16, 1989) was a Greek-Austrian conductor. He was one of the most prominent conductors of the postwar period and is widely regarded as the world's most recorded conductor. Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for thirty-five years.
Contents [hide]
1 Genealogy
2 Early years
3 Postwar years
4 Karajan and the compact disc
5 Politics
6 Musicianship
7 Professional behavior
8 In popular culture
9 Media
10 References
11 External links
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Genealogy
Herbert von Karajan was the son of an upper-bourgeois Salzburg family of Greek ancestry. His great-great-grandfather, Georg Johannes Karajanis, was born in Kozani, at that time a town in the Ottoman Empire (now in Greek Macedonia) [1], [2] and left for Vienna in 1767, eventually moving to Chemnitz in 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 adding the "von" to the family name). The Karajanis name became Karajan. [3]
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Early years
Herbert von Karajan was born in Salzburg as 'Heribert Ritter von Karajan (ref R Osborne's biography mentioned below). From 1916 to 1926, he studied at the Mozarteum Conservatory 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, Germany. In 1933, Karajan made his conducting debut at the Salzburg Festival with the "Walpurgisnacht Scene" in Max Reinhardt's production of Faust. The following 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 March of 1935, Karajan's career was given a significant boost when he applied for membership in the Nazi Party. ('Aufnahmegruppe der 1933er, nachgereichte') That same year, Karajan was appointed Germany's youngest "Generalmusikdirektor" and was a guest conductor in Brussels, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and other European cities. Moreover, in 1937, Karajan made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin State Opera with Fidelio. He enjoyed a major success with Tristan und Isolde and in 1938, was hailed by a Berlin critic as "Das Wunder Karajan." 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Von_Karajan