Herbert Von Karajan; a Life in Music

by Richard Osborne

"This biography explores Karajan's life and music making against the background of European music and politics in the years 1908-1989. Periods in Karajan's life hitherto ignored or believed to have been in some way "covered up"--His childhood in Austria during and after the First World War and his early career as a conductor in Nazi Germany - are frankly and revealingly explored." "This is the "jet-set megastar" who was in reality a shy, music-obsessed, often solitary figure and a poor communicator in personal matters, yet who was also the great modern master of the orchestra, a born teacher, deeply loyal to his closest associates, and often very funny. It is the man who made and sold more best-selling LPs and CDs than any other conductor in the history of the phonograph but who, paradoxically, used the phonograph as a preparation for what was for him the holy grail of the conductor's art, the perfect live performance." "The Karajan story is also the story of musicians with whom he wor