Word: conductor
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When the applause thunders at the end of a Berlin Philharmonic concert, Conductor Herbert von Karajan is not eager to step to the podium. Instead, he prefers to stand among the strings, his head bowed, a faint smile on his face, indicating by an occasional gesture of his hand that the credit belongs to the men of his orchestra. The applause has thundered almost continuously for the Philharmonic during the four-week U.S.-Canadian tour that ends this week, and few who recall the Philharmonic's visit to the U.S. six years ago are deceived by Von Karajan...
...returning the orchestra to its prewar eminence, Von Karajan had first to win the confidence of his players. They had reluctantly voted him in as conductor in 1955 because he was the only candidate fit to fill Furtwangler's shoes. But many recalled and resented the rivalry for musical preferment between Von Karajan and Furtwangler that had raged for years, and they further resented Von Karajan's playboy reputation as a driver of sports cars and a skipper of his own 50-ton yacht...
...after Furtwangler's death, Von Karajan told the orchestra: "We will make music as you have always made music." He soon began to demonstrate his own good faith by increasing his tours and recording commitments with the orchestra despite the most hectic musical schedule maintained by any major conductor: Von Karajan is artistic director of the Vienna State Opera and a conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, directs major opera recordings for London's Philharmonic Orchestra, appears regularly at Milan's La Scala and at Salzburg...
...conducted by Richard Schulze; Vox). Handel's famous pomp-and-circumstantial salute to the 1748 Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle is here given the closest thing to an authentic performance that most listeners will ever hear-or perhaps want to. By using antique, 18th century winds and brasses, Conductor Schulze gets a gaudy, gamy sound characterized by clashing pitches that will curdle most modern ears...
...brilliant satiric evocation of second-rate Astaire-the outflung white-gloved hands (without the gloves), the staccato rhythms tapped out on a walking stick like a hollow third leg, and the agitated centipede footwork interrupted with dazzling toothpasty smiles. The funniest number casts Montand as a feverish symphony conductor who snaps his baton, his Beethoven concert and his career in two to waltz off with a girl who cares only for waltzes. In sentimental Parisian songs, Montand runs the risk of sounding like a younger Chevalier, but winds through his own Paris as naturally as the Seine...