Posted on 12/16/2012 3:44:58 PM PST by Eleutheria5
Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, a major figure in 20th-century classical music, was a more adamant Nazi supporter than previously believed, according to a historian who has unearthed previously unseen documents.
"It is time to probe scientifically the claims that Karajan constructed and cobbled together... and which in the end he really believed himself," said Oliver Rathkolb from Vienna University, according to AFP.
Presenting his findings at a seminar on Friday, Rathkolb cited anti-Semitic comments from letters written by Karajan (1908-1989) in his youth and said that at school the legendary maestro had belonged to an ultra-nationalist, pan-German youth group in Salzburg.
Rathkolb also questioned Karajan's claims after World War II that he only joined the Nazi party in order to be able to pursue his musical career, citing his application to join in April 1933, five years before the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.
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(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Karajan’s Heidegger moment, perhaps.....I sure hope not, though.
Eyew....His renditions of Beethoven’s Symphonies were among my favorites, but now my enjoyment of them has been sullied.
Listen to them with your boots off.
I agree entirely on his Beethoven interpretations. They are for me, definitive. Karajan introduced me to Bruckner, as well, and for me, Karajan’s Bruckner is also definitive.
(Not to imply that I am more knowledgeable than I am...I’m just saying, “I like what I hear” and everytime I say that, it seems like Karajan is at the podium...)
Why? What has his conductorship have to do with his political ideology?
Feeeeeeeeeeelings is what often gets us into trouble.
Genius, whether communist or fascist or whatever, is still genius.
Beethoven wrote the Eroica for Napoleon, and Shostakovich’s 5th is dedicated to the Russian communist revolution of 1917. Both are beautiful.
Art, especially music and poetry, are about feelings. Music without feeling is just mathematically measurable noise. So why do people with such venal feelings as Wagner and Von Karajan become great musicians? Why were the two greatest influences on modern poetry, Pound and Eliot, fascist sympathizers? It makes one wonder about the validity of art. Is it just some pagan venting of feeling?
Ping.
Of course Field Marshall Radetzky is politically incorrect anyway, since he won victories for the Habsburgs over the Italian revolutionaries in 1848.
Just as we at FR get unhappy when artist like Speilberg endorse obama, it makes me unhappy when artists like Von Karajan endorsed hitler.
Artistic Genius does not guarantee political or even moral rectitude.
My Motorcycle Boots?
Especially the 6th.
Not being an English Lit major mind you but just my two cents of what I remember from my high school days, most of what these three wrote was crap. Pound most especially. Yeah, Mencken was a social critic but the love of fascism for failed artists(Hitler considered himself one) and writers who suck otherwise is that as long as they glorify the fascist leader, they’re a success and no one can criticize them in a fascist system.
With regard to truly creative artists, if I didn’t separate their work from their personalities, politics, whatever, I’ve have a small palette. Heck, Brecht angered Hitler and was close to being arrested when he escaped Germany but, on the other hand, he was a committed Marxist and returned to East Germany after the war.
As for actors and the like, they are pretty low on my list as far as talent goes and I have a hard time separating their talent from their personal life and beliefs.
He’s been dead for 23 years or so. Time to move on.
When he conducted the Horst Wessel Song in occupied Paris, that sealed my opinion of him.
You can’t judge the Thirties by what happened during the Forties. Let’s instead judge our own Communist sympathizers AFTER the horrors during the Thirties.
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Thanks for the ping!
Classical Music Ping List ping.
If you'd like on or off this list, let me know via FR e-mail.
Thanks,
sitetest
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