<p>From Kirkus Reviews      The debeautification of a lonely, self-dramatizing, praise- seeking colossus, conductor Herbert von Karajan (1908-89), whom Swiss musicologist Bachmann esteems as a very great European conductor but a man trapped in fairy tales. While not focusing on Karajan's aesthetics, Bachmann makes clear that the set of 43 videodiscs now being released, which Karajan edited himself and which he hoped would enshrine his image as conductor for forthcoming generations, focus too largely on Karajan's minimalist conducting style in his final period and are far from spellbinding. Not always the clearest writer, Bachmann attempts to avoid a ``psychogrammatic'' view of Karajan and yet not settle merely for a rehearsal of the career. Karajan was a child prodigy, giving piano recitals at age four. His first important post was as musical director of the Stadttheater in Ulm, followed a few years later by a similar appointment with the Aachen Stadttheater (in ``the Fhrer's city''). Two things are important here. He had seen Toscanini conduct Falstaff and been overwhelmed by the Italian's symphonic integration of stage work and orchestra. And he made his Faustian pact, foreseeing the value of joining the Nazis in Ulm and insuring his political rise in the musical world. Joseph Goebbels, interested in promoting a rival to Wilhelm Furtwngler, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, appointed Karajan as State Kapellmeister, from which post he spread German music as State publicity--for motives that he hid from his later hagiographers, at whom Bachmann scoffs. The author strains to suggest that in 1940 a farsighted Karajan married his second wife, Anita, who was part Jewish, as a postwar safeguard for washing himself clean of the Nazis. The need for power drove Karajan to build the world's greatest recording and performing musical empire, featuring in Salzburg, his birthplace, Karajan festivals to himself. At his death, no one could replace him in his multiplicity of major posts. Despite an air of superiority, a compelling read--and excellent on Karajan's conducting style. (Eight pages of b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.      Product Description      An account of the twentieth century's most controversial conductor discusses his collaboration with the Nazis, his recordings of Beethoven's symphonies, and his tenure with the Berlin Philharmonic      From Publishers Weekly      Bachmann, a Swiss music critic, notes in a fussy introduction that he interviewed Karajan (1908-1989) often and that an authorized biography was planned--but that whenever he probed too hard for facts, the conductor became evasive, and eventually the project was dropped. The book thus does not cover the whole life, and there are gaps that Bachmann, though obviously an excellent researcher, could not fill in. On the most controversial matter, however--Karajan's longtime membership in the Nazi party--Bachmann is unequivocal and offers the appropriate documents. He also outlines the ways in which Karajan's membership benefited the Nazis, rightly stressing that no public figure in those times was apolitical. The book is largely a psychological portrait, rather heavy-handed and repetitious but thorough. Bachmann sees Karajan as a man of limitless ambition but ultimate insecurity who created a fantasy world around himself and his music. Because of his urge for perfection, his lack of personal creativity, his unresponsiveness to contemporary cultural currents and his limitations as an opera director, Karajan's legacy, Bachmann suspects, will be minimal, despite his immense power in his lifetime. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.      From Library Journal      First published in Germany in 1983, this is a myth-shattering portrait of the late German symphony conductor who was simultaneously leader of the Berlin Philharmonic, a major contributor to the Salzburg Festival, the director of his own "Eas</p>

Karajan Notes on a Career

Arts & Photography

Bachmann, Robert C.

Music

Quartet Books

Karajan: Anmerkungen zu einer Karriere (German Edition)

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

ECON

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