Word: karajans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Richard Wagner conceived his Ring des Nibelungen as combining voice, orchestra, acting and settings into a perfect expressive unity, a "total artwork." That phrase could very nearly describe Austrian-born Herbert von Karajan. At 59, Von Karajan not only is the world's foremost conductor but concerns himself with every aspect of his epic productions, including direction, stage design, lighting. Head of the Berlin Philharmonic, director of the Easter and summer festivals at Salzburg, Von Karajan last week added the Metropolitan Opera to his realm by conducting and staging Die Walküre, first item in a new Ring...
...minutely supervised the spare, expressionistic sets designed by German-born Günther Schneider-Siemssen, a longtime Von Karajan protégé. The extraordinary lighting design, ranging for the most part from grey to basic black, was Von Karajan's own. The cast was handpicked, and the hand was his. He guided the Met's orchestra through what amounted to a graduate seminar on Wagnerian sonority, galvanizing that frequently scraggly ensemble into a pliant, rich tonal fabric...
...Black. Von Karajan's Walküre was hardly a love feast for the traditionalist who prefers bombast in Wagner. The five-hour morality saga of human love in conflict with divine power-and of divinity in conflict with itself-has hardly ever sounded so subdued and lyrical. Without the need to outshout torrents of sound from the pit, the singers often performed at little above normal conversational tones...
After George left this country, which was twenty years ago after being called a Communist and finding that the smart New York musical circles might tolerate a Jew but not a Negro, he came to Europe to conduct the great symphonies and operas. He studied under von Karajan then and now the foremost conductor in Germany, who wrote that George is hochbegabt, highly gifted, very fine praise indeed. I have seen this letter and one from Richter, the pianist, saying how much he enjoyed performing with George. Once the Emperor of Ethiopia come to Berlin and admired Geogre's work...
WAGNER: DIE WALKÜRE, (Deutsche Grammophon; 5 LPs). Despite all of its flames, blood, magic swords and flying goddesses, this crystal-and-velvet score is the most human of Wagner's Ring operas. Conductor Herbert von Karajan's slow, deliberate pace illuminates each stroke of genius in the score, but some listeners will find that he has sacrificed passion for clarity and restrained the anguish that Wagner's wild climaxes can evoke. No matter: Jon Vickers' Siegmund is powerful and Régine Crespin's hotoyohos are properly rousing...