Von Karajan is a famous Austrian conductor. He is known as "the emperor in the palace of contemporary conducting art". The era he created represents the overall trend of world conducting art in the second half of the 20th century.
Karajan was born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1908. His ancestors were originally from Greece. After moving to Austria, two people were granted the title of baron by the Austrian emperor because of their outstanding achievements. Karajan's mother was a doctor and an excellent amateur musician. Influenced by his father and his family's musical environment, Karajan showed his outstanding musical talent at a very young age.
Karajan began learning piano at the age of 4, and by the age of 8 he had already held public concerts. Because of his outstanding talent, he was hailed as a "child prodigy" at the time. People think that he will become an excellent pianist in the future.
In his early years, Karajan studied at the Mozart Music School in his hometown. The principal of this school admired Karajan's talent very much and gave him care in all aspects. He also introduced him to the famous Italian Art Museum to study painting and sculpture. . This played a great role in the formation of Karajan's later artistic style.
After reaching his teenage years, Karajan left his hometown and came to the famous music center Vienna to study piano, conducting and musicology at the Vienna State Conservatory of Music and the University of Vienna. At first, he hoped to become a pianist and studied under J.H. Hoffmann. His piano performance improved rapidly. Unfortunately, Karajan suffered a serious injury to the tendons in his fingers, so he had no choice but to turn his attention to conducting and study under Avondale. Although Vondler was an excellent musician, he could not teach his students much as a teacher. Karajan had to enrich himself through self-study.
Karajan studied very hard on his own. He read all the scores of every opera performed by the Vienna Opera House by heart, and then went to the auditorium of the theater to listen to the live performance, and read it with himself. Compare the inner hearing produced when writing music to improve your ability to read music and master the changes in music. During this period, he listened attentively to a large number of masterpieces performed by the Vienna Opera House, and was also able to observe the rehearsals and performances of conductors such as Keffens, Toscanini, and Walter, from which he learned a lot.
After graduation, Karajan returned to Salzburg. In 1929, he carefully prepared a concert, performed by himself and the student orchestra of the Mozarteum Conservatoire. He conducted and performed Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, Mozart's "Piano Concerto in A Major" and Richard Strauss's symphonic poem "Don Juan". The performance was a success, and more importantly, Karajan was appreciated by the director of the Umm Opera House who came to the concert, and was hired as the permanent conductor of the Umm Opera House.
As soon as he arrived in Um, Karajan performed Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" in March 1929. Umm City is a small city with very low economic and cultural development, and the Umm Opera House is a small theater with only a few dozen people. All this did not stop Karajan from moving forward. Through his unremitting efforts and hard work, Umm City Theater has achieved great development in all aspects. But after five years, Karajan was suddenly dismissed from his position as director of the Opera House.
After many extremely arduous trips and competitions, Karajan was hired as the music director of the Aachen Opera House. During his tenure in Aachen, Karajan gave full play to his talents and began to serve as a guest conductor in Berlin, Vienna and other places as a well-known young conductor.
In 1938, Karajan was invited to serve as the permanent conductor of the Berlin State Opera, and also held a concurrent post in Aachen. It was not until 1941 that he officially resigned from the Aachen Opera and concentrated on working in Berlin. As Karajan's popularity rose, he served as the permanent conductor of the Vienna State Opera in 1956 and 1977. He was also hired as music director and conductor by major European orchestras and opera houses, including La Scala in Milan and the London Philharmonic. Orchestra etc.
In addition, he has also become the artistic general director of world-famous music festivals such as the Salzburg Music Festival and the Lucerne Music Festival, so people gave him the title of "European Music General Director".
In 1989, Karajan passed away at the age of 81. As a super conductor in the history of world conducting, his exquisite conducting art is the most exquisite and brilliant art in this era.