The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Karajan, Herbert Von

Born Apr. 5, 1908, in Salzburg. Austrian conductor.

Karajan pursued his musical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He was conductor of the opera in Ulm (1927–34) and Aachen (1934–41) and then of the Berlin State Chorus (1941–44). Since the war, Karajan has come to be a leading figure in the musical life of Western Europe. In 1947 he became conductor of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and has participated in festivals in Salzburg, Vienna, Bayreuth, Berlin, and Munich. He has toured with the Vienna Symphony and the London Philharmonia and has appeared as conductor and director in many European opera theaters. After N. Furtwängler’s death in 1954, he became head of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (West Berlin); at the same time, he was musical director of the Vienna State Opera (1956–64) and the Salzburg Festival (1957–60). In 1962, 1964, and 1969, he appeared in the USSR.

Karajan’s conducting is characterized by fidelity to the composer’s score, irreproachable sense of musical form, and keen intellectual perception of the work.

REFERENCES

Rubin, M. “Tri portreta.” Sovetskaia muzyka, 1962, no. 4.
Sabinina, M. “Na kontsertakh Gerberta Karaiana.” Muzykal’naia zhizn’ 1969, no. 16.
Herzfeld, F. Herbert von Karajan, 2nd ed. Berlin, 1962.
Haeusserman, E. H. von Karajan: Biographie. [Güthersloh, 1968.]

E. IA. RATSER