Karajan's 100

It was exactly 100 years since Herbert von Karajan's birth yesterday (he died in 1989). His legacy is still quite controversial in some quarters. Norman Lebrecht, whose opinions on classical music I don't always agree with, offers a good overview of why Karajan's centenary shouldn't be heartily celebrated.

To that I would add my 2 cents: I agree with Lebrecht that Karajan was a huge egomaniac. I would also agree that his pervasive power over the classical music industry helped promote excessive conservatism and commercialism. I think he recorded way too much repertoire, a lot of which he wasn't suited to. But like a lot of egomaniacs, in their unflagging devotion to making themselves the ones at the top of the pile, he could be very good at what he did. His preoccupation with a very beautiful and smooth sound from his orchestra became at times a bit grotesque in later years. There are still some recordings of his that I own and enjoy, though: his Mahler 5th, his 1963 Beethoven cycle, and his Mozart Requiem from the 1980s.

And here I am at Karajan ground zero: I live in Salzburg, Austria, where he was born, where he reigned for decades as the main conductor and promoter of the famous Salzburg festival, and where he often lived. His widow still lives here and is an essential part of the jet-set circle. I frequently pass by the mansion where he was born and which has a pretentious statue of him out front.

The question a lot of people think is most important is "Was he a Nazi?" As I said I think he was mainly an egomaniac. I find it hard to believe he was a devoted Nazi since he married his first wife, who was half Jewish, in 1942, and had to endure falling from grace with the regime at the time. He probably became a party member in 1933 for the one reason that propelled him: his career and his advancement. Maybe he wasn't a Nazi, but he sure wasn't a man of conscience or much concern for others.

In the end, I would like to think he paid a price for his self-centeredness and his errors -- in some of the interviews I saw with him, he always seemed oddly unsatisfied, always pushed for better, for more power. That is the price a lot of egomaniacs pay -- you can never have too much money, or influence, or power, or fame. That unquenchable thirst must not be easy to bear and at the end... is always a feeling of failure.

So, don't count on me showing up at any of the fancy Karajan celebrations (I didn't get an invite anyway) or buying any of the super-slick anniversary celebration disk sets that the disk companies are going to churn out compulsively. But I might still play one of his recordings once in a while.

Karajan in his element: absolute power over orchestra and moneyed audience