MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Herbert von Karajan - Maestro for the Screen Documentary [52:00]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major BWV 1048
Suite No. 2 in B minor BWV 1067 [32:00]
Berliner Philharmoniker/Karajan
Documentary co-produced by BFMI, RBB, BR and ARTE in 2008. Concert produced by UNITEL in 1968 (Suite No. 2) and 1967 (Brandenburg Concerto No. 3)
Mastered from HD Source; Picture Format:16.9; PCM Stereo; Region Code 0 worldwide.
C MAJOR 737704 DVD [84:00]

What a monumental ego was Herbert von Karajan, arrogant, talented, complex, complicated and ultra-confident - a man who never shrank from self-publicity. In the UK to conduct and record for Columbia in the 1950s he eschewed all the music of his host country – Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Delius – all except Holst’s The Planets and that one might imagine because Holst had at one time, before anti-German sentiments of World War I, been called von Holst.

Karajan was always interested in technology, flying and driving fast cars - an enthusiasm he shared with renowned British horn-player Dennis Brain. During a visit to Japan with the Berlin orchestra he became aware of the potential of television. Without hesitation he embraced the possibilities of the medium and set out not only to acquaint himself with every artistic and technical aspect of television but to develop a visual presentation with special lighting effects and camera movements always spotlighting himself as the star. Initially he relied on such directing luminaries as Henri-Georges Clouzot and Hugo Niebling. Karajan, ever in total control, ‘took over responsibility for every detail’, even founding his own TV production company, Telemondial.

This video shows the maestro in rehearsal, in concert and with personalities like Clouzot. Karajan is constantly to the fore. When it comes to the two Bach works in TV concert, the unremitting pictures of Karajan in close-up tend to become just too much. One wearies and begins to wonder who is paramount here - Bach or the maestro. Having said all this, I was touched by the video footage of a withered Karajan, filmed not long before he died, conducting Johann Strauss II with quite breath-taking beauty for a New Year’s concert in Vienna. He must have known this would be his first and his last.

Ian Lace

 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing