Author Description

Herbert von Karajan, one of the most brilliant and controversial conductors of the twentieth century, died in 1989. This is an intimate scrap-book portrait of the man and, by association, an account of the internal workings of the world's most successful orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic. Klaus Lang makes use of first-hand documentation-contemporary reviews, Karajan's own speeches, interviews with prime witnesses (among others, Karl Bohm, the long-suffering Intendant Wolfgang Stresemann and leader of the orchestra Michel Schwalbe) and extensive interviews with the conductor himself. We become party to the scandals, personalities, politics, travels and gossip of the orchestra, and privy to the thoughts of an extraordinarily charismatic man - his views on subjects ranging from the acoustic and therapeutic nature of music to football, his love of flying and fast cars his obduracy.