Herbert von Karajan

Despite being banned to perform in her home country during the communist regime, Lucia Popp was highly appreciated abroad.

In 1963, at the age of 24, she joined the Vienna State Opera at the invitation of famous conductor Herbert von Karajan.

Thanks to her unique coloratura soprano, Lucia Pop starred at the main world opera stages such as La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York or Covent Garden in London.

She died on the 15th of November 1993 due to brain cancer.

So if we think about the image of conductor as an authoritarian figure, with power or perceived power comes the reputation of enigma, genius, special powers, magical impact, etc.

And Christopher Small has collectively profiled Mahler, Furtwängler, Toscanini, Stokowski, all contemporaries of Wood, and subsequently then Herbert von Karajan as autocrat in their domain.

So I think it's very interesting then overall in relation to this question of conductor image, these kind of case by case nuances.

We've been talking about various individuals to try and fill in the picture here.

The initial CDs were made in a plant in Hanover, Germany.

Debut titles included Abba's album, The Visitors, and a recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting Richard Strauss' The Alpine Symphony.

In October of 1982, Sony's CD-P101 made its debut in Japan alongside the first run of CD albums led by Billy Joel's 52nd Street.

Sony's device was pricey, around US$2,300 in today's currency.

I would like to thank Maestro White for recommending this particular recording.

This is from 1972, the Berlin Philharmonic conductor Herbert von Karajan with the chorus of Deutsche Oper Berlin.

And if you wouldn't mind, let us know who the singers are.

Besides Pavarotti, who you've mentioned.

So this recording with Pavarotti, with Mirella Frani, Rolando Panarai is the Marcello, Nikolai Girov is Poline, and Gianni Maffeo sings Chonard.

Elizabeth Harwood is the very sumptuous and beautiful Musetta.

And the fact that we've got the Berlin Philharmonic, which is one of the great orchestras in the world, playing so incredibly beautifully and vibrantly with Herbert von Karajan.

I'm so glad we're using this recording.

I'm going to quote right off the bat.

Herbert von Karajan, one of the greatest conductors ever, used to say that, described the job of a conductor as being like a, how do you call it in English, a horseback rider? Yeah.

When you do horse jumping, the cavalier on the horse is not doing the jump.

No.

[laughs] Um, and the recording is still so charming.

Um, it was with Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Um-

What was it about his playing?

If you are in my corner of finding this sort of comparison in and of itself interesting, then you really are in the right place today.

And for those of you who have far better things to do than compare the merits of a Herbert von Karajan with those of a John Eliot Gardner, I hope that over an hour of Mozart's incredible music will be more than enough reward for your time.

Okay, some music.

I've used the semi-rhetorical question of, hey, what were you doing when you were X years of age, a few times in the podcast, so it would be too repetitious to use it here.

It seems a fitting way to end this episode.

I hope you have enjoyed it.

Here is the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's overture to Die Zauberflöte, The Magic Flute.

¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you.

People retire 65, 66, and so that generation is now almost gone from the orchestra.

When I joined 12 years ago, there were more people around who had played under Karajan, and it's definitely still present.

I mean, you know, from the library we get parts that are from the Karajan times, and it's definitely a very essential part of the orchestra tradition.

And, you know, you're right, there's still things coming out, discoveries, I think, on the Berlin Philharmonic label.

They've released now a whole bunch of previously... unreleased radio recordings from the 1950s through the 70s, big CD sets, too.