Saturday, October 11, 2008

Herbert Von Karajan, The golden musician.


I sit down in front of my computer and I begin to watch a musical video which orchestra is conducted by the magnificent Karl Von Karajan. The concert starts with a forte beginning and I begin to smile. This man, old and decrepit, with great happiness but concentration moves his hands leading the orch estra and the public at the same time. Is just incredible how this old man, without opening his eyes and without any mistake, can guide every single note, every sharp or flat.

My admiration for him is old as myself. He drove me through the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky; he taught me how to play and how to direct a big orchestra as Bach would do it. He just demonstrated that a musician is not only who plays an instrument, but who puts all its energies and enthusiasm in the work. Karajan was that proof of passion, as we can see in all of his productions. He was not only a man who had in charge the philharmonic of Berlin, he was the inspiration for them; he was the reason they perseverated in music and the reason they tried to convert every work in an universe with bright lights and perfect geometry. Nevertheless, he didn’t just inspire all of his musicians, but the whole world.

Behind his strong face of concentration existed a bright mind with a great heart. His eyes hardly closed by perfectionism hided the soul of a modernist; a modernist who tried to make music a perfect and geometrical interpretation of daily life. Just behind this, we could find one of the greatest musicians in the whole world. In April of this year we celebrated 100 years from his birth. The birth of a genius and the birth of the modern interpretation for music.