Spotlight Verdi: “Aida”
When Karajan conducted “Aida” for the first time in Vienna in 1951, it was not at the State Opera. As with “Carmen” three years later, he caused a stir...
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Spotlights
Karajan artists: Géza Anda – “a troubadour of the piano”
Karajan’s admiration for the great pianists he worked with did not necessarily produce a large number of joint concerts and recordings...
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Spotlight Berg: orchestral works
It is generally accepted in the biographies about Karajan that his dedication to Mahler and the Second Viennese School was a major project in the 1970s. Even his critics consider the LP box with works of Arnold Schönberg, Anton von Webern and Alban Berg to be...
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Spotlight Tchaikovsky: The ballet suites
There are a lot of pieces that Karajan only recorded once and never performed live. But it was unusual for him...
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Karajan artists: Giuseppe Taddei – Papageno and pappardelle
He is the artist Karajan worked with longer than with anyone else – 34 years! The Italian baritone Giuseppe Taddei was in Karajan’s line-ups between 1948 and 1982 and he is also the oldest singer...
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Spotlight Nielsen: “The Inextinguishable”
In 1981, Karajan recorded Nielsen’s symphony Nr 4 “Det uudslukkelige (the Inextinguishable)”. It was the first and only time he recorded a work by Nielsen and he never performed the symphony live. It may be significant that...
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Spotlight Bartók: “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta”
It is often said that Karajan wasn’t all that interested in contemporary music and when he conducted it, his commitment to a specific piece wasn’t unswerving. Bartók’s “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta”...
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Spotlight Humperdinck: “Hänsel und Gretel”
An opera for children? Karajan took it very serious like a mature Wagnerian score. Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hänsel und Gretel” is a “one-hit wonder” in the history of music and one of the...
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Karajan artists: Maria Callas – “fellow perfectionists”
When Walter Legge gave a demo tape to Karajan in 1953, he might have hoped that Karajan would listen to it and eventually contemplate to work with...
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Karajan artists: Mario del Monaco – a legendary Otello
Even though Karajan was not an Italian maestro, his authority in the Verdi repertoire was so undisputed that he was able to cast the best singers for his first “Otello” recording in 1961. Mario del Monaco...
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