num_pages: 274
description: In this fascinating and searching biography, Roger Vaughan has chronicled the life and times of one of the most controversial musical figures of the century. In private life an avid pilot, yachtsman, and racer, Herbert von Karajan has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for over thirty years. He has led major orchestras in Vienna, Milan, and London, and was, for many years, the presiding genius of the Salzburg Music Festival. He has gained an international reputation as a foremost interpreter of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century operas, particularly those of Mozart and Wagner. After a career spanning more than 60 years, he has been acclaimed "the General Music Director of Europe."Von Karajan grew up in Austria in the afterglow of the Hapsburg Empire, and his early career coincided with the rise of Nazism in Germany. At the end of the war, despite his desultory attempts to separate the worlds of music and politics, he found himself in personal and artistic limbo. In 1955, when he brought the Berlin Philharmonic to New York City his concerts were picketed; when he returned with the same orchestra in 1983, he was greeted by shouts of "Bravo."Von Karajan has always taken his moments of relaxation away from the world of music. In the past he has presented a carefully prepared image to the press and it is only now, in his seventh-seventh year, that he breaks away from his lifelong reticence and talks frankly about his family background and the politics of Nazi Germany. The man whose recordings have sold over a hundred million copies through the years shares with us his thoughts about the relationship between orchestra and conductor, conductor and singer, and between creative artist and business executive.Roger Vaughan spent nearly two years traveling with and observing Herbert von Karajan in Europe and America. His research is meticulous and he has written a balanced biography of a complex man and a musical genius. Vaughan started his writing career at the Saturday Evening Post and later was on the staff of Life magazine. He has published three previous books and is currently editor of the Yacht magazine.
language: English
title: Herbert von Karajan: A Biographical Portrait
titlecomplete: Herbert von Karajan: A Biographical Portrait
genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Classical Music
ratings_count: 39
publisher: W W Norton & Co., Inc.