Herbert Von Karajan: A Biographical Portrait

by Roger Vaughan

Book Overview

The author provides frank interviews and insight (the first authorized in English) the notoriously press-shy, revered and hated 77-year-old Austrian conductor, a giant of the vanishing autocratic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393022242
• ISBN13: 9780393022247
• Release Date: May 1986
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Different perspective is good!!!!

The thing about biographies is that they are usually slanted toward just one aspect of the subject's life, intentionally or un-. Vaughan somehow melds some of the less obvious parts of The Maestro's life with his more well-known attributes. One caveat: Mr. Vaughan would have benefited from a better editor at Norton; there are little slips that a GOOD editor would have caught. THIS is the kind of biography a music-appreciator, not necessarily a musical professional, will love. I did.

A good portrait of Herbert von Karajan from his later years

I read Roger Vaughan's HERBERT VON KARAJAN: A BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAIT, in the summer of 1989, and liked it very much. Vaughan, who wrote a book on boating in the early 1980s which conductor Karajan (1908-1989) had read and admired, contacted Vaughan and asked him to write a his own (Karajan's) biography. Karajan once stated that he trusted Vaughan to write his biography because Vaughan was not a musician, and in the back-biting world of huge egos of musicians, Karajan would not trust a musician with this task! Vaughan includes some tidbits of day to day life for Karajan in 1983-85, when the book was written. He mentions things like what Karajan would have for supper; personal thoughts on Goethe, the famous German writer; his relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic, the orchestra he conducted from 1955-1989; his thoughts on skiing, boating, flying small aircraft. He talks about Karajan's three marriages, 2 daughters (with his 3rd wife); performances of Wagner's THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at Salzburg; Karajan's rift with the Berlin Philharmonic over his insistence at hiring Sabine Meyer as principal clarinet (in violation of the orchestras "no women in our ranks" policy which stood until this time); Karajan's final recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies, and films made of Karajan concerts or studio recordings. Karajan believed all recordings in the future would be video + audio, a prediction which has so far not been fulfilled. I enjoyed this book alot, as it gave me added insight into Herbert von Karajan as a man and musician. Even in his late 70s and declining health (vascular problems and great pain from a degenerating spine and difficulty walking) Karajan remained a dynamic conductor who told his orchestras what he expected, and usually got the results he wanted. Tidbits: Karajan was a fan of the movie "E.T." and loved television as a form of entertainment, but did not listen to Classical music at home. His wife, Elliette (an ex Dior model) would listen to contemporary piano works at home when Karajan wasn't there, but he preferred quiet, and really loved his hobbies: skiing, swimming, boating, and flying planes. Highly recommended, if you are interested in this conductor.