Known For
Acting
Born
Apr 05, 1908
Died
Jul 16, 1989
Place of Birth
Salzburg, Austria
Credits
100 titles
Herbert von Karajan
Biography
Herbert von Karajan (born Heribert Ritter[a] von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during the Second World War he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records. The Karajans were of Macedonian Greek ancestry. Herbert's great-great-grandfather, Georg Karajan (Geórgios Karajánnis, Greek: Γεώργιος Καραγιάννης), was born in Kozani, in the Ottoman province of Rumelia (now in Greece), leaving for Vienna in 1767, and eventually Chemnitz, Electorate of Saxony. His last name, like several other Ottoman-era ones, contains the Turkish language prefix "kara", which means "black". He and his brother participated in the establishment of Saxony's cloth industry, and both were ennobled for their services by Frederick Augustus III on 1 June 1792, thus adding the prefix "von" to the family name. This usage disappeared with the abolition of Austrian nobility after World War I. The surname Karajánnis became Karajan. Although traditional biographers ascribed a Slovak and Serbian or simply a Slavic origin to his mother, Karajan's family from the maternal side, through his grandfather who was born in the village of Mojstrana, Duchy of Carniola (today in Slovenia), was Slovene. Aromanian heritage has also been claimed. Through the Slovene line, Karajan was related to the Slovenian-Austrian composer Hugo Wolf. He also seems to have known some Slovene. Heribert Ritter von Karajan was born in Salzburg, Austria-Hungary, the second son of senior consultant Ernst von Karajan (1868–1951) and Marta (née Martha Kosmač; 1881–1954) (married 1905). He was a child prodigy at the piano. From 1916 to 1926, he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Franz Ledwinka (piano), Franz Zauer (harmony), and Bernhard Paumgartner (composition and chamber music). He was encouraged to concentrate on conducting by Paumgartner, who detected his exceptional promise in that regard. In 1926 Karajan graduated from the conservatory and continued his studies at the Vienna Academy, studying piano with Josef Hofmann (a teacher with the same name as the pianist) and conducting with Alexander Wunderer and Franz Schalk. Karajan made his debut as a conductor in Salzburg on 22 January 1929. The performance got the attention of the general manager of the Stadttheater in Ulm and led to Karajan's first appointment as assistant Kapellmeister of the theater. His senior colleague in Ulm was Otto Schulmann. After Schulmann was forced to leave Germany in 1933 with the NSDAP takeover, Karajan was promoted to first Kapellmeister. ... Source: Article "Herbert von Karajan" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For
Filmography
Grace Bumbry is Carmen
Conductor
Please Call Me Claudio: The Visionary Claudio Abbado
Self (archive footage)
Ludwig Van Beethoven: 9 Symphonies
Conductor
Eye of the Beholder
Musician
Karajan: Portrait of a Maestro
Self - Music Conductor (archive footage)
Rostropovich: L'archet Indomptable
Self (archive footage)
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana & Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
Conductor
The Clouzot Scandal
Self (archive footage)
Karajan - Der Maestro und sein Festival
Self (archive)
Wagner: Die Walküre
Director
Verdi: Falstaff
Self - Conductor
Herbert von Karajan – The Second Life
Self (archive footage)
Karajan dirigiert Beethovens Siebente (Directors Cut)
Self (archive footage)
Inside Karajan
Self
Karajan: Beauty As I See It
Self (archive footage)
Karajan - Beethoven: The Symphonies
Self - Conductor
Herbert von Karajan: Maestro for the Screen
Self (archival footage)
Beethoven · Missa Solemnis (Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan)
Self - Conductor
Karajan: Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 9
Karajan: Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklarung / Metamorphosen
Karajan: Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphonies nos. 1-4
Karajan: Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphonies nos. 5-8
Karajan: Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie / Also Sprach Zarathustra
Karajan: Richard Strauss: Don Quixote / Ein Heldenleben
Self - Conductor
Karajan In Concert
Self - Conductor
Karajan Tchaikovsky Symphonies 4, 5 & 6
Self - Conductor
Rostropovich Life & Art
Self - Conductor
Karajan - Bruckner - Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9
Self
Karajan: Beethoven - Symphonies 1, 2 & 3
Self - Conductor
Karajan: Beethoven - Symphonies 4, 5 & 6
Self - Conductor
Karajan · Die Symphonien
Self - Conductor
Karajan: Beethoven - Symphonies 7, 8 & 9
Self - Conductor
Karajan: Opening Concert - Berlin 750 Years
Herbert Von Karajan: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Self - Conductor
Herbert von Karajan: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6
Self - Conductor
Herbert Von Karajan: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
Self - Conductor
Karajan: 1988 New Year's Concert - Prokofiev & Tchaikovsky
Herbert Von Karajan: Dvorák - Symphony No. 9
Self - Conductor
Maestro, Maestro! Herbert von Karajan
Self
The Art of Conducting: Great Conductors of the Past
Self (archive footage)
Karajan conducts Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Orch. Ravel)
Herbert von Karajan
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons / Von Karajan, Mutter, Berlin Philharmonic
Self - Conductor
Don Giovanni
Self - Conductor
Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker 1987
Self - Conductor
Herbert Von Karajan - New Year's Concert Vienna 1987
Self - Conductor
Karajan: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem
Don Carlo
Self - Conductor
Herbert von Karajan conducts Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
Self
Herbert von Karajan: Verdi: Don Carlo
Herbert Von Karajan - Berliner Philarmoniker - Debussy: La Mer, Prélude A L'après-midi D'un Faune - Ravel: Daphnis Et Chloé Suite No. 2
Conductor