Karajan:
- The Second Life
This is a brand new 80-minute documentary of conductor Herbert von Karajan, available on DVD for the first time.
There is no doubt that Mr. Karajan made an enormous impact on music performance, and also on the shaping and ultimate excellence of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Still, music appreciation is a very personal affair; I, personally, had great difficulty to connect with the conducting style of Herbert von Karajan. I found him to be aloof, autocratic, and impersonal, as I watched his rehearsals. I preferred and was thrilled with the work of conductors Carlos Kleiber and Georg Solti
This is a behind the scenes look at Karajan’s work in the recording studio and a multifaceted portrait of the conductor and his musical vision.
The material includes excerpts from privately recorded phone conversations between Karajan and his sound engineer Günter Hermanns selected exclusively for this documentary.
There are also interviews with many important colleagues and collaborators of Karajan’s.
Karajan certainly left an amazing legacy as a conductor of music by Richard Wagner, Beethoven, Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach and others. He also was an important coach to many emerging young musicians, such as Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Here is a video of Karajan as he rehearses a performance of Wagner’s Liebestod with the great American singer, Jessye Norman:
And next, here is Herbert von Karajan in the rehearsal and recording of Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony:
Finally, here is a Great presentation by the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan, playing the 9th Symphony of Antonin Dvorak “From the New World”:
Tags: Herbert von Karajan, documentary, Wagner, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky