Weekend Concert 33: This Man Made Karajan a Clown
2007/4/8 12:50:31
Karajan was of course no clown -- for the legions of audiophiles, for the increasingly commercialized and pop-ified world of classical music performance, he was once the king of the music world. But just as the Three Tenors became clowns before Caruso, this man made the so-called king of commercialized pop-classical, Karajan, into an utter clown. Two Germans, both once questioned for their ambiguous ties to the Nazis, each representing the highest standard of conducting before and after WWII, the finest interpretation of the German-Austrian musical tradition, and the helm of the world's finest orchestra -- yet before his predecessor, Karajan was nothing but an utter clown.
When the news of his death reached Berlin's Titania-Palast on November 30, 1954, the first words from every member of the world's finest orchestra were: "He's gone -- I never want to do music again!" Without him, the interpretation of German-Austrian music could not have reached the level we can hear today; with him, all musical clowns and commercial garbage had nowhere to hide. He was not merely a conductor, but a composer with the highest conducting talent -- only his overwhelmingly brilliant conducting career eclipsed his compositions. The three ultra-large-scale symphonies and one Piano Concerto he completed, while not quite first-rate by the highest standards, are more than enough to defend the dignity of classical music in this noisy, vapid age.
After Beethoven's "Choral," symphonic composition had a new benchmark, and this German old man was inseparably linked to the "Choral." On the eve of Hitler's 53rd birthday, he performed an extraordinary rendition of the "Choral" for the Nazi Party elite -- surging with the most furious torrents, the most extraordinary "Choral" performance in history. After the performance, when Goebbels shook his hand, he wiped that right hand with his handkerchief. The film footage of the time captured this subtle detail for history.
This man, who returned to Germany at Schoenberg's urging -- who voluntarily went back to Germany to defend the German-Austrian musical tradition from Nazi destruction, the true king of the Berlin Philharmonic, the German old man who made Karajan a clown -- his Chinese transliterated name is: Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán 2007/4/8 12:53:45
Outside, the willow buds have emerged, sunlight dancing on the water, wild ducks preening in the sun. This ID is heading out for a look.
Heading out first, goodbye.