103-692: Herbert von Karajan ( German: [ˈhɛʁbɛʁt fɔn ˈka(ː)ʁajan] ; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan ; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era , he debuted at the Salzburg Festival , with the Vienna Philharmonic , the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at
206-602: A gramophone production in Vienna. In 1949, Karajan became artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna. He also conducted at La Scala in Milan. His most prominent activity at this time was recording with the newly formed Philharmonia Orchestra in London, helping to build them into one of the world's finest. Starting from this year, Karajan began his lifelong attendance at
309-624: A 1935 New Year's Eve gala production of Strauss's Die Fledermaus . They divorced in 1942. Elmy died of heart failure in 1983. A statement from his Salzburg office stated that Karajan was "very shocked, affected, and deeply upset by the news. He had never forgotten her; she had been a part of his life." Karajan did not attend her funeral in Aachen. On 22 October 1942, at the height of the Second World War , Karajan married his second wife, Anna Maria "Anita" Sauest, born Gütermann [ de ] ,
412-638: A Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica , on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul , and with his wife and daughters received Holy Communion from the hand of the Pope. By the end of his life he had reconciled with the Catholic Church, and requested a Catholic burial. Karajan was married three times. Karajan married his first wife, Elmy Holgerloef, an operetta singer, on 26 July 1938. He first worked with her on
515-779: A bit!" He made a gesture like stirring a pudding. But what he meant was, let the music flow more naturally. Karajan conducted and recorded prolifically, mainly with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. He conducted other orchestras (including the NHK Symphony Orchestra , the New York Philharmonic , the Concertgebouw Orchestra , the Orchestre de Paris , the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala, Milan and
618-407: A brave heart fights, it doesn’t save blood, because for one’s kin, even dying is worth it! 𝄇 いざ行け！ 旗押し立てて！ 雄々しく進め、進め 我等の敵を破るところに、 希望(のぞみ)の道は拓く。 我等の敵を破るところに、 希望(のぞみ)の道は拓く。 Iza ike! Hata oshi tatete! Ōshiku susume, susume Warera no teki o yaburu tokoro ni, Kibō (Nozomi) no michi wa hiraku. Warera no teki o yaburu tokoro ni, Kibō (Nozomi) no michi wa hiraku. Let's go! Raise
721-610: A fourth-class train to Warsaw for a concert. The orchestra was renamed and reorganized under the financial management of Hermann Wolff in 1882. Their new conductor was Ludwig von Brenner ; in 1887 Hans von Bülow , the conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra and one of the most famous piano virtuosos of the time, took over the post. This helped to establish the orchestra's international reputation, and guests Hans Richter , Felix von Weingartner , Richard Strauss , Gustav Mahler , Johannes Brahms and Edvard Grieg conducted
824-624: A performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic for Hitler's birthday. Following the end of the performance, Joseph Goebbels approached the podium to shake Furtwängler's hand. This concert led to intense criticism of Furtwängler after the war. After Furtwängler (who was personally opposed to the Nazi regime ) fled to Switzerland to escape arrest by the Gestapo in January 1945, Leo Borchard became chief conductor. The final wartime concert
927-471: A regulation required the right arm be extended and raised in the " Nazi salute " when the (identical) first and fourth verses were sung. Nazi leaders can be seen singing the song at the finale of Leni Riefenstahl 's 1935 film Triumph of the Will . Hitler also mandated the tempo at which the song had to be played. After Hitler's public speeches, he would exit during the playing of both the national anthem and then
1030-454: A result of that melee, five Communists were injured, four of them seriously. Communist newspapers accused the police of letting the Nazis get away while arresting the injured Communists, while Nazi newspapers claimed that Wessel had been trying to give a speech when Communists emerged and started the fight. Wessel's face was printed together with his address on Communist street posters. The slogan of
1133-544: A skating rink and converted by the architect Franz Schwechten . In 1899, a smaller concert hall, the Beethovensaal on Köthener Straße, was also inaugurated for chamber music and chamber ensembles. The first Philharmonie was used until British bombers destroyed it on 30 January 1944, the anniversary of Hitler becoming chancellor. The orchestra played until the end of the war in the Staatsoper , Unter den Linden . The Staatsoper
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#17328590318761236-428: A specially configured Porsche 911 Turbo (type 930) with Martini & Rossi livery and his name on the back. One of Karajan's signature skills as a conductor was his ability to extract exquisite sounds from orchestras. His biographer Roger Vaughan observed this phenomenon while listening to the Berlin Philharmonic play in 1986, after nearly 30 years under Karajan's direction, noting that "what rivets one's attention
1339-641: A wrong note from an orchestra but when everything is getting faster or slower, that I cannot accept." He once explained to a German journalist why he preferred the Berlin to the Vienna Philharmonic: "If I tell the Berliners to step forward, they do it. If I tell the Viennese to step forward, they do it, but then they ask why." Karajan was a noted interpreter of virtually every standard of the classical repertoire, from
1442-551: Is a German orchestra based in Berlin . It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. The Berlin Philharmonic was founded in Berlin in 1882 by 54 musicians under the name Frühere Bilsesche Kapelle (literally, "Former Bilse's Band"); the group broke away from their previous conductor Benjamin Bilse after he announced his intention of taking the band on
1545-466: Is perhaps also to do with my love of remote places, my love of mountains rather than cities. Layton demystifies this relationship somewhat by observing that: [s]tring tremolandi and pedal points are, of course, among [the similarities between Bruckner and Sibelius], and we hear Brucknerian echoes in the development section of the first movement of Kullervo , written only a year or so after Sibelius first heard Bruckner's Third Symphony in Vienna. Yet
1648-429: Is sounded for the last time! The last sound to charge is blown! Stanza 3, line 3 Bald flattern Hitlerfahnen über Barrikaden Schon/bald flattern Hitler-Fahnen über allen Straßen Soon Hitler's banners will flutter above the barricades Already/Soon Hitler's banners will flutter above all streets After Wessel's death, new stanzas were added, composed in his honour. These were frequently sung by
1751-669: Is sounded! For the fight, we all stand prepared! Already Hitler's banners fly over all streets. The time of bondage will last but a little while now! The Rotfront , or "Red Front", was the Rotfrontkämpferbund , the paramilitary organization of the Communist Party of Germany. The Nazi SA, also known as the "brown shirts" and the Communist Red Front fought each other in violent street confrontations , which grew into almost open warfare after 1930. The "reactionaries" were
1854-441: Is the beauty and perfection of the sounds. The softest of pianissimos commands rapt attention. The smooth crescendos peak exactly when they should. The breaks are sliced clean, without the slightest ragged edge." Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Karajan's conducting style was his propensity to conduct with his eyes closed. This is highly unusual for a conductor, as eye contact is generally regarded as of paramount importance to
1957-563: The Berlin Philharmonic . That same year, he made his debut with the Berlin State Opera conducting Fidelio , and then had a major success at the State Opera with Tristan und Isolde . His performance was hailed by a Berlin critic as Das Wunder Karajan (Karajan the miracle). The critic wrote that Karajan's "success with Wagner's demanding work Tristan und Isolde sets himself alongside Wilhelm Furtwängler and Victor de Sabata ,
2060-571: The Berlin State Opera . Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he sold an estimated 200 million records. The Karajans were of Greek ancestry. Herbert's great-great-grandfather, Georg Karajan (Geórgios Karajánnis, Greek: Γεώργιος Καραγιάννης ),
2163-506: The British Union of Fascists , known as The Marching Song or Comrades, the Voices was set to the same tune, and its lyrics were to some extent modelled on the song, though appealing to British Fascism . Instead of referring to martyrs of the party, it identifies Britain's war dead as those marching in spirit against the " red front and massed ranks of reaction ". Comrades, the voices of
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#17328590318762266-758: The Lucerne Festival . In 1951 and 1952, Karajan conducted at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus . During its 1955 tour of the United States, Karajan's past membership in the Nazi Party led to the Berlin Philharmonic's concerts being banned in Detroit, and Philadelphia Orchestra music director Eugene Ormandy refused to shake Karajan's hand. Upon arriving in New York City for a concert at Carnegie Hall , Karajan and
2369-565: The Mozarteum in Salzburg with Franz Ledwinka (piano), Franz Zauer (harmony), and Bernhard Paumgartner (composition and chamber music). He was encouraged to concentrate on conducting by Paumgartner, who detected his exceptional promise in that regard. In 1926, Karajan graduated from the conservatory and continued his studies at the Vienna Academy , studying piano with Josef Hofmann (a teacher with
2472-604: The Staatskapelle Dresden ), but the vast majority of his recordings were made with the Berlin and Vienna orchestras. He also left a considerable legacy of recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra , his last performance being in 1960. Although he made recordings with several labels, notably EMI , it is Deutsche Grammophon with which he became most associated, making 330 recordings with it. Karajan's 1981 Deutsche Grammophon recording of An Alpine Symphony with
2575-512: The Vienna Philharmonic for the first time, and from 1934 to 1941, he was engaged to conduct operatic and orchestra concerts at the Theater Aachen . Karajan's career received a significant boost in 1935 when he became Germany's youngest Generalmusikdirektor , at Aachen, and performed as a guest conductor in Bucharest, Brussels, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Paris. In 1938, Karajan made his debut with
2678-745: The conservative political parties and the liberal democratic German government of the Weimar Republic period, which made several unsuccessful attempts to suppress the SA. The "time of bondage" refers to the period after the 1919 Treaty of Versailles , in which the victorious powers imposed huge reparations on Germany, stripped her of her colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Ocean, some of which became League of Nations mandates , gave parts of Germany to Belgium, Denmark, France, Poland, and Lithuania, and occupied
2781-452: The " Horst-Wessel-Lied " ("Horst Wessel Song"), to be the Nazi Party anthem, which aided in promoting Wessel as the first of many in the Nazi cult of martyrdom. Wessel was buried on 1 March 1930. Contrary to Nazi claims, there were no attacks on the funeral procession . His funeral was filmed and turned into a major propaganda event by the NSDAP. The "Horst Wessel Song" was sung by the SA at
2884-553: The 1930s, when Italian opera was still something of a rarity in Austria and Germany: [M]y training in Verdi's Falstaff came from Toscanini. There wasn't a rehearsal in either Vienna or Salzburg at which I wasn't present. I think I heard about thirty. From Toscanini I learnt the phrasing and the words—always with Italian singers, which was unheard of in Germany then. I don't think I ever opened
2987-663: The Ambassador's residence in 1933, a young Nazi who was a liaison between the German Foreign Ministry and Hitler's Chancellery , turned off the record player , announcing "This is not the sort of music to be played for mixed gatherings and in a flippant manner." The song was played in some Protestant places of worship, as some elements of the Protestant Church in Germany had accepted the Horst Wessel cult, built as it
3090-470: The Baroque era to the 20th century. He was an admirer of Glenn Gould 's interpretations of Bach , performing the D minor Keyboard Concerto with him on one occasion. The eminent Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon considered Karajan's recordings of the 12 London Symphonies as some of the finest he knew, and his multiple Beethoven cycles are still staples. Yet Karajan's real interests seem to have lain in
3193-494: The Berlin Philharmonic became the first work ever to be pressed on the compact disc format. Even though his repertoire had been extensively covered in analog ( LP record ), he spent the rest of the 1980s making digital recordings , notably rerecording Beethoven's symphonies (Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic's 1977 analog recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 won the Grand Prix du Disque , while their 1984 digital recording of it
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3296-544: The Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in Abbado's honour. In June 1999, the musicians elected Sir Simon Rattle as their next chief conductor. Rattle made it a condition of his signing with the Berlin Philharmonic that it be turned into a self-governing public foundation, with the power to make its own artistic and financial decisions. This required a change to state law, which
3399-584: The Berlin Philharmonic were confronted by protests and picketers. In 1956, Karajan was appointed principal conductor for life of the Berlin Philharmonic as Furtwängler's successor. From 1957 to 1964, Karajan was artistic director of the Vienna State Opera . He was closely involved with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival, where he initiated the Easter Festival, which remained tied to
3502-657: The Berlin Philharmonic's music director after his tenure. In his later years, Karajan suffered from heart and back problems, needing surgery on the latter. He resigned as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic on 24 April 1989. His last concert was Bruckner's 7th Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic. He died of a heart attack at his home in Anif on 16 July 1989 at the age of 81. Karajan believed in reincarnation and said he would like to be reborn as an eagle so he could soar over his beloved Alps. Even so, on 29 June 1985, he conducted Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Coronation Mass during
3605-514: The Berlin Wall in 1989. Abbado expanded the orchestra's repertoire beyond the core classical and romantic works into more modern 20th-century works . Abbado stepped down from the chief conductorship of the orchestra in 2002. During the post-unification period, the orchestra encountered financial problems resulting from budgetary stress in the city of Berlin. In 2006, the Orchestra Academy of
3708-1122: The Digital Concert Hall additionally offers livestreams produced from HD movies of concerts by Herbert von Karajan in the 1960s and early 1970s. Since 2010, selected concerts of the Berlin Philharmonic have been transmitted live to cinemas in Germany and Europe. The orchestra conferred honorary membership to the conductors Daniel Barenboim (he is also the first and only honorary conductor), Bernard Haitink , Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Seiji Ozawa , Mariss Jansons , and Zubin Mehta . Classical BRIT Awards Grand Prix du Disque Awards Grammy Awards Gramophone Awards ECHO (formerly Deutscher Schallplattenpreis ) of Deutsche Phono-Akademie ICMA ( International Classical Music Awards ) Timbre de Platine (Platinum Stamp) awarded by Opéra International magazine Diapason magazine Horst-Wessel-Lied The " Horst-Wessel-Lied " ( German: [hɔʁst ˈvɛsl̩ liːt] ), also known by its incipit " Die Fahne hoch " ('Raise
3811-555: The Flag High'), was the anthem of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 1930 to 1945. From 1933 to 1945, the Nazis made it the co-national anthem of Germany , along with the first stanza of the " Deutschlandlied ". The " Horst-Wessel-Lied " has been banned in Germany and Austria since the end of World War II unless for artistic or educational purposes. The lyrics to "Horst-Wessel-Lied" were written in 1929 by Sturmführer Horst Wessel ,
3914-505: The Horst Wessel Song. Some Nazis were extremely sensitive about the uses to which the "Horst Wessel Song" was put. For instance, a bandleader who wrote a jazz version of the song was forced to leave Germany, and when Martha Dodd , the daughter of William E. Dodd , at the time the US ambassador to Germany , played a recording of an unusual arrangement of the song at her birthday party at
4017-626: The KPD and the Red Front Fighters' League became "strike the fascists wherever you find them." Wessel moved with his partner Erna Jänicke into a room on Große Frankfurter Straße . The landlady was the widowed Mrs. Salm, whose husband had been a Communist. After a few months, there was a dispute between Salm and Wessel over unpaid rent. Salm requested Wessel's partner to leave but Jänicke refused. Salm appealed to Communist friends of her late husband for help. Shortly thereafter on 14 January 1930, Wessel
4120-578: The Nazi accession to national power in 1933. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Gauleiter and owner and editor of the newspaper Der Angriff (The Attack), had made several attempts to create Nazi martyrs for propaganda purposes, the first being an SA man named Hans-Georg Kütemeyer, whose body was pulled out of a canal the morning after he attended a speech by Hitler at the Sportpalast . Goebbels attempted to spin this into an assassination by Communists, but
4223-408: The Nazi period. The Austrian denazification examining board discharged Karajan on 18 March 1946, and he resumed conducting shortly thereafter. Years later, former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt said of Karajan's Nazi party membership card, "Karajan was obviously not a Nazi. He was a Mitläufer ." In 1946, Karajan gave his first postwar concert in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic , but
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4326-621: The Netherlands to conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra and make recordings there in 1943. He conducted for an audience of 300 Nazi armaments officials at a conference convened by Albert Speer in Linz, Austria, on 24–25 June 1944. In September 1944, he was listed on the Gottbegnadeten list (God-gifted list of artists exempt from mobilisation ). Karajan's denazification tribunal, held in Vienna on 15 March 1946, cleared him of illegal activity during
4429-562: The Prussian State Orchestra. He then became music director of the Staatskapelle Berlin, with which he toured Rome with extraordinary success. The next year, his contract in Aachen was discontinued. His marriage to Anita Gütermann (with one Jewish grandparent) and the prosecution of his agent Rudolf Vedder also contributed to his temporary professional decline, leaving him few engagements beyond a limited season of concerts with
4532-561: The Rhineland . The line Kameraden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen is technically ambiguous. It could either mean Kameraden, die von Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen wurden ("Our comrades who were shot dead by the Red Front and Reactionaries") or Kameraden, welche die Erschießung von Rotfront und Reaktion durchführten ("Our comrades who have shot the Red Front and Reactionaries dead"). In spite of this obvious syntactic problem, which
4635-648: The SA but did not become part of the official lyrics used on party or state occasions. Sei mir gegrüßt, Du starbst den Tod der Ehre! Horst Wessel fiel, doch tausend neu erstehen Es braust das Fahnenlied voran dem braunen Heere SA bereit, den Weg ihm nachzugehen Die Fahnen senkt vor Toten, die noch leben Es schwört SA, die Hand zur Faust geballt Einst kommt der Tag, da gibts Vergeltung, kein Vergeben wenn Heil und Sieg durchs Vaterland erschallt. Receive our salute; you died an honorable death! Horst Wessel fell, but thousands newly arise The anthem roars ahead of
4738-579: The Slovene line, Karajan was related to the Slovenian-Austrian composer Hugo Wolf . He also seems to have known some Slovene . Herbert Ritter von Karajan was born in Salzburg , Austria-Hungary , the second son of physician (surgeon) and senior consultant Ernst von Karajan (1868–1951) and Marta (née Martha Kosmač; 1881–1954) (married 1905). He was a child prodigy at the piano. From 1916 to 1926, he studied at
4841-629: The Staatskapelle. By 1944, Karajan was, by his account, losing favour with the Nazi leadership, but he conducted concerts in Berlin as late as 18 February 1945. A short time later, in the closing stages of the war, he and his wife fled Germany for Milan, relocating with the assistance of Victor de Sabata. Karajan's increased prominence from 1933 to 1945 has led to speculation that he joined the Nazi Party solely to advance his career. Critics such as Jim Svejda have pointed out that other prominent conductors, such as Arturo Toscanini , Otto Klemperer , Erich Kleiber , and Fritz Busch , fled Germany or Italy at
4944-423: The abolition of Austrian nobility after World War I. The surname Karajánnis became Karajan . Although traditional biographers ascribed a Slovak and Serbian or simply a Slavic origin to his mother, Karajan's family from the maternal side, through his grandfather who was born in the village of Mojstrana , Duchy of Carniola (today in Slovenia ), was Slovene . Aromanian heritage has also been claimed. Through
5047-441: The body so the mind is absolutely free to do what it wants. Karajan was also known for his preternaturally keen sense of tempo, even going so far as to have himself tested against a computer to prove it. He insisted that this skill was learned, not inherited, and considered it the bedrock of musical interpretations. He cited inconsistencies in rhythmic accuracy and control as "one thing that might make me lose my temper. I can accept
5150-404: The brown army The storm-divisions are ready to follow his path. The flags are lowered before the dead who still live The storm-division swears, his hand clenched into a fist, That the day will come for revenge, no forgiveness, When Heil and Sieg will ring through the fatherland. After Wessel's death, he was officially credited with having composed the music as well as having written
5253-403: The commander of the Nazi paramilitary "Brownshirts" ( Sturmabteilung or "SA") in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin . Wessel wrote songs for the SA in conscious imitation of the Communist paramilitary , the Red Front Fighters' League , to provoke them into attacking his troops, and to keep up the spirits of his men. Wessel was the son of a pastor and educated at degree level, but
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#17328590318765356-532: The conductor's communication with the orchestra. Yet, as Vaughan remarked: "[h]ere is one of the fascinating aspects of conducting: there are no rules, only guidelines. The most eccentric approach is tolerated if the results are successful." Indeed, James Galway , who served as principal flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1969 to 1975, recalled that "he [Karajan] achieved most of what he wanted through charm". But there were reasons for many of Karajan's eccentricities. Conducting with his eyes closed, for instance,
5459-419: The daughter of a well-known manufacturer of yarn for sewing machines. Having had a Jewish grandfather, she was considered a Vierteljüdin (one-quarter Jewish woman). They divorced in 1958. On 6 October 1958, Karajan married his third wife, Eliette Mouret , a French model born in Mollans-sur-Ouvèze . She had enjoyed a carefree childhood growing up in Provence before being discovered by Christian Dior when she
5562-440: The dead battalions, Of those who fell, that Britain might be great, 𝄆 Join in our song, for they still march in spirit with us, And urge us on to gain the fascist state ! 𝄇 We're of their blood, And spirit of their spirit, Sprung from that soil, for whose dear sake they bled, 𝄆 Against vested powers, Red Front, and massed ranks of reaction, We lead the fight for freedom and for bread! 𝄇 The streets are still,
5665-403: The development of young people, and she is a patron of the Salzburg Easter Festival . Karajan had been a passionate sportsman since he was a teenager. He was a keen skier and swimmer and followed a daily yoga ritual. He won several regattas aboard his racing yacht, christened Helisara . He piloted his Learjet and was a great sailing and car enthusiast, particularly fond of Porsches . He ordered
5768-432: The end [of a performance of Elektra in Berlin] he came and said to me it was the best performance of the opera he had ever heard. I said, "I don't really want to hear this; tell me what was wrong with it." I think he was surprised by my reaction, so he asked me to lunch the next day. He said, "You have made the music very clear, the fp here, the accent there; but these are not at all important. Just wave your stick around
5871-502: The feeling of elemental power, that one is dealing with something profound." When pressed about this connection toward the end of his life by his biographer Osborne, Karajan echoed some of these sentiments, saying: There is in both [Bruckner and Sibelius] a sense of the elemental. But I have often asked myself what it is that drew me to Sibelius's music and I think it is that he is a composer who cannot really be compared to anyone else. ... And you never come to an end with him. I think it
5974-898: The final struggle's ended; Flushed with the fight, we proudly hail the dawn! 𝄆 See, over all the streets, the fascist banners waving, Triumphant standards of our race reborn! 𝄇 In modern Croatia , members of various far-right movements consider the adaptation written by Jan Zadravec , called " Hrvatski Stijeg " (The Croatian Banner), to be their unofficial anthem. Vije se stijeg i legije predvodi. Čuje se zvuk, zvuk naše pobjede. 𝄆 Junaci, koji za dom u boju sve su dali, duhom su tu, koračaju uz nas! 𝄇 Nek vidi se, nek cijeli svijet ga znade. Nek čuje se, nek ori se za svagd. 𝄆 Kad brat uz brata opet svoje branit stade, nek pamti se, da mi smo bili tu! 𝄇 I sad ko tad, kad vrag nam opet prijeti; I sad ko tad, budi se Hrvatska! 𝄆 I hrabro srce kada bije krv ne štedi, jer za svoj rod i život vrijedi dat'! 𝄇 The flag flies high and guides
6077-401: The flag! The ranks tightly closed! The SA marches with calm, steady step. Comrades shot by the Red Front and reactionaries March in spirit within our ranks. Clear the streets for the brown battalions, Clear the streets for the storm division man! Millions are looking upon the hooked-cross full of hope, The day of freedom and of bread dawns! For the last time, the call to arms
6180-427: The funeral, and was thereafter extensively used at party functions, as well as sung by the SA during street parades . According to Austrian historian Oliver Rathkolb , the song was created as a counterweight to the socialist song The Internationale . When Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, the "Horst Wessel Song" became a national symbol by law on 19 May 1933. The following year,
6283-446: The general manager of the orchestra was Pamela Rosenberg. In September 2010, Martin Hoffmann became the orchestra's new Intendant . Hoffmann stood down as its Intendant after the close of the 2016/2017 season. Andrea Zietzschmann became Intendantin of the orchestra as of the 2017–2018 season. In December 2020, the orchestra announced the extension of Zietzschmann's contract as Intendantin until 31 August 2025. In February 2024,
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#17328590318766386-1946: The government's request, and deleted the song from their offerings. A special marine commando unit within the Chilean Navy uses the same melody as the Horst-Wessel-Lied with different lyrics called "Himno de la Agrupación de Comandos IM no. 51". The words to the "Horst Wessel Song" were published in September 1929 in the Nazi Party's Berlin newspaper, Der Angriff ('The Attack') which Joseph Goebbels owned and ran. Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen fest geschlossen! SA marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt. 𝄆 Kam'raden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen, Marschier'n im Geist in unser'n Reihen mit. 𝄇 Die Straße frei den braunen Bataillonen. Die Straße frei dem Sturmabteilungsmann! Es schau'n aufs Hakenkreuz voll Hoffnung schon Millionen. Der Tag für Freiheit und für Brot bricht an! Zum letzten Mal wird Sturmalarm geblasen! Zum Kampfe steh'n wir alle schon bereit! Schon flattern Hitlerfahnen über allen Straßen. Die Knechtschaft dauert nur noch kurze Zeit! [diː ˈfaː.nə hoːx diː ˈʁaɪ.ən fɛst ɡə.ˈʃlɔ.sn̩ |] [ɛs aː maʁ.ˈʃiːɐt mɪt ˈʁuː.ɪç ˈfɛ.stəm ʃʁɪt ‖] [kam.ˈʁaː.dən | diː ˈʁɔt.ˌfʁɔnt ʊnt ʁe.ʔak.ˈt͡si̯oːn ɛɐ.ˈʃɔ.sn̩ |] [maʁ.ˈʃiːɐn ɪm gaɪst ɪn ˈʊn.zɐn ˈʁaɪ.ən mɪt ‖] [diː ˈʃtʁaː.sə fʁaɪ deːn ˈbʁaʊ.nən ˌba.ta.ˈli̯oː.nən |] [diː ˈʃtʁaː.sə fʁaɪ deːm ˈʃtʊɐ.map.ˌtaɪ.lʊŋ.ˌman ‖] [ɛs ʃaʊn aʊfs ˈhaː.kn̩.ˌkʁoʏt͡s fɔl ˈhɔf.nʊŋ ʃoːn mɪ.ˈli̯oː.nən ‖] [dɛɐ taːk fyːɐ ˈfʁaɪ.ˌhaɪt ʊnt fyːɐ bʁoːt bʁɪçt an ‖] [t͡sʊm ˈlɛt͡s.tn̩ maːl vɪɐ̯t ˈʃtʊɐ.ma.ˌlaʁm ɡə.ˈblaː.zən ‖] [t͡sʊm ˈkam.pfə ʃteːn viːɐ̯ ˈa.lə ʃoːn bə.ˈʁaɪt ‖] [ʃoːn ˈfla.tɐn ˈhɪt.lɐ.ˌfaː.nən ˈyː.bɐ ˈa.lən ˈʃtʁaː.sn̩ ‖] [diː ˈknɛçt.ʃaft ˈdaʊ.ɐt nuːɐ nɔx ˈkʊɐ.t͡sə t͡saɪt ‖] Raise
6489-414: The greatest opera conductors in Germany at the present time". Receiving a contract with Deutsche Grammophon that same year, Karajan made the first of numerous recordings, conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin in the overture to The Magic Flute . Karajan's career continued to thrive at the beginning of the war. In 1939, the Berlin State Opera appointed him State Kapellmeister and conductor of concerts by
6592-426: The home of the Berlin Philharmonic, and its symbol. The orchestra's logo is based on the pentagon-shape of the concert hall. On 20 May 2008, a fire broke out at the Philharmonie. One-quarter of the roof underwent considerable damage as firefighters cut openings to reach the flames beneath the roof. The hall interior also sustained water damage, but was otherwise "generally unharmed". The firefighters limited damage by
6695-468: The legions. The sound is heard, the sound of our victory. 𝄆 Heroes that gave everything fighting for our homeland, are here in spirit, and march among us! 𝄇 Let it be seen, may the whole world know it. Let it be heard, may it echo for eternity. 𝄆 When brothers stood shoulder to shoulder to defend their own, may it be remembered, that we were here! 𝄇 So now as then, when the enemy threatens again; So now as then, Croatia arises! 𝄆 When
6798-459: The lyrics for the "Horst Wessel Song". Between 1930 and 1933, however, German critics disputed this, pointing out that the melody had a long history. " How Great Thou Art " is a well-known hymn of Swedish origin with a similar tune for example. Criticism of Horst Wessel as author became unthinkable after 1933, when the Nazi Party took control of Germany and criticism would likely be met with severe punishment. The most likely immediate source for
6901-410: The melody of a song composed in 1865 by Peter Cornelius as the "Urmelodie" (source-melody). According to Weidemann, Cornelius described the tune as a "Viennese folk tune". This appeared to him to be the ultimate origin of the melody of the "Horst Wessel Song". During the 1930s and 1940s, the "Horst Wessel Song" was adapted by fascist groups in other European countries. One of the marching songs of
7004-433: The melody was a song popular in the Imperial German Navy during World War I , which Wessel would no doubt have heard being sung by World War I veterans in the Berlin of the 1920s. The song was known either by its opening line as Vorbei, vorbei, sind all die schönen Stunden or as the " Königsberg-Lied ", after the German cruiser Königsberg , which is mentioned in one version of the song's lyrics. The opening stanza of
7107-427: The membership number 1607525 and moved to Ulm. It is said that this accession was never formally carried out. It is also certain that Karajan rejoined the Nazi Party in Aachen in March 1935, this time receiving the membership number 3430914. After the annexation of Austria, the responsible Reich Treasurer of the Nazi Party discovered Karajan's double membership in Munich and declared the first accession invalid. The second
7210-465: The most potent assessment of Karajan's interpretation of Sibelius's music came from Sibelius himself, who, according to Legge, said, "Karajan is the only conductor who plays what I meant." Karajan was also a prolific opera conductor, championing the works of Wagner , Verdi , Richard Strauss and Puccini . Verdi's last opera, Falstaff , was something of a mainstay throughout Karajan's career. In his conversations with Osborne, Karajan recalled that, in
7313-442: The orchestra announced a further extension of Zietzschmann's contract as Intendantin through the summer of 2028. In 2006, the orchestra announced it would investigate its role during the Nazi regime . In 2007, Misha Aster published The Reich's Orchestra , his study of the relationship of the Berlin Philharmonic to the rulers of the Third Reich. Also in 2007, the documentary film The Reichsorchester by Enrique Sánchez Lansch
7416-647: The orchestra announced that Petrenko was to formally commence his contract as chief conductor with the 2019/20 season. A year after this news, in October 2016, the orchestra specified more precisely the start of Petrenko's tenure as 19 August 2019. The orchestra's first concert hall , the Philharmonie situated on the Bernburger Straße in Berlin Kreuzberg , was inaugurated in 1882 in a building previously used as
7519-551: The orchestra over the next few years. In 1887, the pianist and composer Mary Wurm became the first woman to conduct the orchestra. Programmes of this period show that the orchestra possessed only 46 strings, much less than the Wagnerian ideal of 64. In 1895, Arthur Nikisch became chief conductor, and was succeeded in 1923 by Wilhelm Furtwängler . Despite several changes in leadership, the orchestra continued to perform throughout World War II . On 20 April 1942, Furtwängler conducted
7622-406: The orchestra voted 73 to 4 not to admit her to the orchestra. Meyer subsequently left the orchestra. After Karajan stood down from the orchestra in 1989, the orchestra offered the chief conductorship to Carlos Kleiber , who declined. In 1989, the orchestra elected Claudio Abbado as its next principal conductor. It was the first time the Philharmonic resorted to democratic voting after the fall of
7725-513: The overwhelming evidence showed it to have been suicide , and he had to drop the matter. Thus, Goebbels put considerable effort into mythologizing Wessel's story, even as the man lay dying. He met with Wessel's mother, who told him her son's life story, his hope for a "better world", and his attempt to rescue a prostitute he had met on the street. Goebbels saw Wessel as an "idealistic dreamer". Wessel himself had undergone an operation at St. Joseph's Hospital which stopped his internal bleeding , but
7828-534: The party on how to respond to Wessel's death. They declared a period of mourning until 12 March, during which party and SA members would avoid amusements and Wessel's name would be invoked at all party meetings. Wessel's unit was renamed the Horst Wessel Storm Unit 5. From a mashup of fact and fiction, Goebbels' propaganda created what became one of the Nazi Party 's central martyr -figures of their movement. He officially declared Wessel's march, renamed as
7931-511: The period from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries. Principal among these were his fascinations with the composers Anton Bruckner and Jean Sibelius . In a 1981 interview with Gramophone ' s Robert Layton, Karajan remarked that he felt "a much deeper influence, affinity, kinship—call it what you like—[in Sibelius's music] with Bruckner. There is this sense of the Urwald , the primaeval forest,
8034-512: The post from 1955 until his resignation in April 1989, only months before his death. Under him, the orchestra made a vast number of recordings and toured widely, growing and gaining fame. The orchestra hired its first female musician, violinist Madeleine Carruzzo , in 1982. However, Karajan's hiring in September 1982 of Sabine Meyer , the first female wind player to the orchestra, led to controversy when
8137-664: The recordings were done at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin Dahlem , celebrated for its acoustics. The need for a new Philharmonie was expressed since 1949, when the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Berliner Philharmonie e.V. (Friends of the Berliner Philharmonie Society) was created to gather funds. The building of the new Philharmonie started in 1961, following the design of architect Hans Scharoun , and it
8240-548: The same name as the pianist ) and conducting with Alexander Wunderer and Franz Schalk . Karajan made his debut as a conductor in Salzburg on 22 January 1929. The performance got the attention of the general manager of the Stadttheater in Ulm and led to Karajan's first appointment as assistant Kapellmeister of the theater. His senior colleague in Ulm was Otto Schulmann . After Schulmann
8343-549: The score. It was so in my ears, I just knew it. Karajan went on to make two recordings of Falstaff —one for EMI/HMV in 1956 and another for Philips in 1980—and his colleague Otto Klemperer hailed the Vienna State Opera production as "really excellent". Strauss was likewise a continual force in Karajan's life, not just as a composer, but as a conductor. Karajan recounted their only "proper" meeting, in 1939, to Osborne: [A]t
8446-512: The song is: Vorbei, vorbei sind all die schönen Stunden die wir verlebt am schönen Ostseestrand Wir hatten uns, ja uns so schön zusamm'n gefunden es war für uns der allerschönste Ort. Gone, gone are all the happy hours that we spent on the beautiful Baltic shore. Things were so beautiful between us all and it was for us the finest place of all. In 1936, the German music critic Alfred Weidemann published an article, in which he identified
8549-414: The surgeons had been unable to remove the bullet in his cerebellum . Wessel was brought to his mother's home to die. In his diary, Goebbels described Wessel's entire face as being shot up and his features distorted, and claimed that Wessel told him "One has to keep going! I'm happy!" After a period where his condition stabilized, Wessel died on 23 February. Goebbels consulted Hermann Göring and others in
8652-403: The time. Richard Osborne noted that among the many significant conductors who continued to work in Germany during the war years— Wilhelm Furtwängler , Carl Schuricht , Karl Böhm , Hans Knappertsbusch , Clemens Krauss and Karl Elmendorff —Karajan was one of the youngest and thus one of the least advanced in his career. He was allowed to conduct various orchestras and was free to travel, even to
8755-528: The use of foam. The orchestra was restricted from use of the hall for concerts until June 2008. On 18 December 2008, the orchestra announced the official creation of a Digital Concert Hall . This hitherto unique internet platform of the BPO enables persons with computer access all over the world to see and hear the Philharmonic's concerts, live or on demand, not only under recent conductors, but even previous concerts conducted, e.g., by Claudio Abbado . Since July 2014,
8858-583: Was 18. This laid the foundation for an international modelling career. Karajan first met Mouret in 1957 and was deeply taken with her. Their first daughter, Isabel , was born on 25 June 1960. In 1964, their second daughter, Arabel, was born. After Karajan's death, Eliette continued his musical legacy by founding of the Herbert von Karajan Centre in Vienna, now in Salzburg and known as the Eliette and Herbert von Karajan Institute . Her numerous projects focus particularly on
8961-419: Was a consequence of memorizing scores; keeping his eyes closed helped him keep focus. Karajan's method of score study, too, was somewhat unusual, as noted by his friend Walter Legge , who remarked: He is one of the few conductors I have known who has never made a mark in a score. He will absorb a score quietly sitting on the floor, like a relaxed Siamese cat. Over the years he has learned how completely to relax
9064-721: Was also destroyed on 3 February 1945. In need of a venue, the Berlin Philharmonic played during the years following the war in the Titania-Palast , an old movie theater converted in a concert hall, and still used the Beethovensaal for smaller concerts. During the 1950s the orchestra moved its concerts at the Musikhochschule (today part of the Berlin University of the Arts ), in the Joseph-Joachim-Konzertsaal. However, most of
9167-499: Was approved in 2001, allowing him to join the organization in 2002. In his first season, he initiated community projects, such as a performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps danced by 250 public school children, documented in Rhythm Is It! . Rattle's contract with the orchestra was initially until 2012. In April 2008, the BPO musicians voted in favour of retaining Rattle as their chief conductor until 2018. From 2006 to 2010,
9270-457: Was banned from further conducting by the Soviet occupation authorities because of his Nazi party membership. That summer he participated anonymously in the Salzburg Festival. On 28 October 1947, Karajan gave his first public concert following the lifting of the conducting ban. With the Vienna Philharmonic and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde , he performed Johannes Brahms 's A German Requiem for
9373-553: Was born in Kozani , in the Ottoman province of Rumelia (now in Greece), leaving for Vienna in 1767, and eventually Chemnitz , Electorate of Saxony . Georg and his brother participated in the establishment of Saxony's cloth industry, and both were ennobled for their services by Frederick Augustus III on 1 June 1792, thus adding the prefix " von " to the family name. This usage disappeared with
9476-467: Was by Goebbels on the model of Christian martyrs of the past. With the end of the Nazi regime in May 1945, the "Horst Wessel Song" was banned. The lyrics and tune are now illegal in Germany , with some limited exceptions. In early 2011, this resulted in a Lower Saxony State Police investigation of Amazon.com and Apple Inc. for offering the song for sale on their websites. Both Apple and Amazon complied with
9579-629: Was employed as a construction worker . He became notorious among the Communists when he led a number of SA attacks into the Fischerkiez , an extremely poor Berlin district, which he did on orders from Joseph Goebbels , who was then the Nazi Gauleiter (regional party leader) of Berlin. Several of these incursions were only minor altercations, but one took place outside the tavern which the local German Communist Party (KPD) used as its headquarters. As
9682-447: Was forced to leave Germany in 1933 with the Nazi Party takeover, Karajan was promoted to first Kapellmeister . In the postwar era, Karajan maintained silence about his Nazi Party membership, which gave rise to a number of conflicting stories about it. One version is that because of the changing political climate and the destabilization of his position, Karajan attempted to join the Nazi Party in Salzburg in April 1933, but his membership
9785-547: Was inaugurated on 15 October 1963, with a performance of Beethoven 's Ninth Symphony , conducted by Herbert von Karajan . Its location made it part of the Kulturforum , and the great hall (2,440 seats) was then complemented by a chamber-music hall, the Kammermusiksaal (1,180 seats), built in 1987, following the design of architect Edgar Wisniewski , after a project by Hans Scharoun. The Berliner Philharmonie has since been
9888-421: Was later declared invalid because he somehow failed to follow up on the application and that Karajan formally joined the Nazi Party in Aachen in 1935, implying that he was not eager to pursue membership. More recent scholarship clears up this confusion: ...the truth is that Karajan actually joined the Nazi Party twice. The first time this happened was on 8 April 1933 in Salzburg. He paid the admission fee, received
9991-562: Was made retroactive to 1 May 1933. During the entire Nazi era he "never hesitated to open his concerts with the Nazi favorite ' Horst-Wessel-Lied ', but "always maintained he joined strictly for career reasons." His enemies called him "SS Colonel von Karajan". In 1933, Karajan made his conducting debut at the Salzburg Festival with the Walpurgisnacht Scene in Max Reinhardt 's production of Faust . In Salzburg in 1934, Karajan led
10094-726: Was mentioned by Victor Klemperer in his LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii , the line was never changed. The following line Marschier'n im Geist in unser'n Reihen mit (March in spirit within our ranks) however indicates that the aforementioned comrades are deceased, advocating the first interpretation. Some changes were made to the lyrics after Wessel's death: Stanza 1, line 2 SA marschiert mit mutig-festem Schritt SA marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt The storm battalion march with bold, firm step. The stormtroopers march with calm, firm step Stanza 3, line 1 Zum letzten Mal wird nun Appell geblasen! Zum letzten Mal wird Sturmalarm geblasen! The call
10197-545: Was not particularly critically acclaimed yet sold considerably more). In the mid-1990s, Deutsche Grammophon released the Karajan Gold series, remixes of Karajan's 1980s digital recordings enhanced by 24-bit processing. Karajan filmed performances of his work for both Unitel and his own company, Telemondial. Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic (German: Berliner Philharmoniker )
10300-581: Was on 12 April 1945, just before the commencement of the Battle of Berlin . The program included Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene, the finale from Wagner's Götterdämmerung ( Twilight of the Gods ). Hitler Youth members are reported to have distributed cyanide pills to the audience for those who wished, by death, to escape the imminent arrival of the Red Army . The battle forced the orchestra to close for two months, but it
10403-624: Was quickly reopened by the Soviet occupation authorities under the East Berlin commandant General Nikolai Berzarin on 26 May 1945. Borchard was accidentally shot and killed later in 1945 by the U.S. Army forces occupying West Berlin . Sergiu Celibidache then took over as chief conductor for seven years, from 1945 to 1952. Furtwängler returned as chief conductor in 1952 and held the post until his death in 1954. The orchestra elected Herbert von Karajan as its next chief conductor. Karajan served in
10506-639: Was released. UNICEF appointed the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Rattle as Goodwill Ambassadors in November 2007. On 10 January 2013, the orchestra announced the scheduled end of Rattle's tenure as artistic director and chief conductor in 2018. In 2014, the orchestra founded its own label, Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings. After an abortive first attempt on 11 May 2015, the orchestra on 21 June 2015 elected Kirill Petrenko as its next artistic director and chief conductor. In October 2015,
10609-403: Was shot and seriously wounded by two Communist Party members, one of whom was Albrecht "Ali" Höhler . Wessel died in hospital on 23 February from blood poisoning , which he contracted during his hospitalisation. Höhler was tried in court and sentenced to six years' imprisonment for the shooting. He was taken out of prison under false pretenses by the SA and shot dead three years later, after
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