Conversations With Von Karajan - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060391073 ISBN 13: 9780060391072

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1990

Synopsis

The Austrian-born conductor discusses his education, his career, and the arts of conducting and recording

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Reviews

The late German conductor Herbert Von Karajan (1908-1989) was an intriguing figure, and this collection of interviews with him by a noted British music critic reveals what a remarkable subject he would make for an in-depth biography. In an introduction Usborne does not gloss over Karajan's alleged Nazi beginnings, though he fairly places them in the perspective of the times. But in his exchanges with the maestro, he is harsher on the opinions of some critics that Karajan's music-making is overrefined. The Karajan of the interviews is a man of remarkable passion as well as control, a man who himself paid for the studio sessions that produced a noted set of recordings of the Second Viennese School, a project that might have been thought far from his purview. Naturally, since Karajan knew everyone who was anyone in music for the past 50 years, the anecdotes flow freely, but the book's chief accomplishment is to hint at the riches of a life so far only skimmed by slight biographies--and to send people back to the records and videodiscs.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In interviews spanning the years 1977 until a month before his death in 1989, Osborne coaxed Herbert von Karajan into discussing a myriad of subjects: himself and his career; his insights into a number of composers and their compositions; conducting; the technology of recording; and his thoughts and stories about other famous performers. An introductory essay by Osborne discusses von Karajan's career in undisguised adulatory terms, defending him from a variety of critics. The question-and-answer format often results in choppy and maddeningly short statements, but it does provide an additional glimpse into the way von Karajan's mind worked. A fascinating first-hand view of an extraordinary talent.
- Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060391073
• ISBN 13: 9780060391072
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 157
• Editor: Osborne Richard