Herbert von Karajan: Documentary Portrait of the Conductor Legend | With Beethoven’s 9th Symphony

Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989), one of the 20th century’s most fascinating and complex geniuses, dominated the post-war classical music world like a colossus. At the same time, his ambitious, ambivalent personality, and particularly his troubling career history with the Third Reich cast a shadow on his reputation. This film reveals the phenomenon of the man and his music while touching on inspiring, but also controversial, and troubling aspects of his career. It is Karajan himself, in archive interviews, who talks of events in his life and relates them to his work as a conductor. Featuring performance excerpts of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier. ------- Chapters ▷ 00:00:00 - Intro: A Genius & His Influence ▷ 00:01:27 - Karajan’s Childhood & Beginnings ▷ 00:10:40 - Career under Nazi regime, NSDAP membership & rivalry with Furtwängler ▷ 00:15:38 - Richard Strauss & World War II ▷ 00:17:55 - Meeting Walter Legge: Development of Recording Career & Philharmonia ▷ 00:24:38 - Beethoven’s 9th Symphony: Karajan on Film ▷ 00:31:49 - Berlin Philharmonics Conductor for Life & Artistic Director of Vienna Staatsoper ▷ 00:33:30 - Milan, Controversies & Reflections on Conducting ▷ 00:41:28 - Salzburg’s Großes Festspielhaus & Strauss’s Rosenkavalier ▷ 00:47:33 - Berlin Philharmonic, Science & Innovation ▷ 00:52:42 - Bringing Music to Children & Karajan’s own childhood influences ▷ 01:02:19 - Strauss’s Alpine Symphony