cssa12 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

To GustavMahlerHorn and japanesesweet- Also, Leonard Bernstein,(who was of Jewish decent)was kept out of Berlin while Karajan was chief conductor... Karajan wouldn't let Bernstein come to be a guest conductor. Sad but true.....

japanesesweet (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

for what it matters,Scwartzkopf was a member of the Nazi Party so if she did refuse to work with him (is that true!?)it must`ve been on different grounds.Perlman refused,but there were others. Rubenstein dined out on stories of refusing to work with HvK...neither Rubenstein or Perlman set foot in Germany so they were just extremely sensitive.fair enough.None of which demonstrates that HvK was ideologically a Nazi.

GustavMahlerHorn (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

In fact many artists did refuse to work with him, like Elizabeth swarzchkopf and perlman, for instance.

japanesesweet (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

NO he wasn`t! if he was ideologically that way inclined i don`t know why he had close friends/colleagues/record producers who were jewish/gay/black...all of these people would have not tolerated him.

darkprose (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

I think Karajan was a self-promoting opportunist, not a Nazi. A significant difference. We can drop the specter of Nazism and enjoy his legacy relatively guilt-free (at least, politically.)

MahlerTitan (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

hey, i don't think he cared that much, if it was the communists who were in power, he would've been a communist.

DMS412 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Becase HVK was a NAZI

3fGilchrist (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

ohhhhhh no cadence!

philopus81 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

There is total rubbish spread around by idiot often british critics like Norman Lebrecht that deny Karajans status as the best conductor of the 20th Century. They call him bland too often only interested in tonal beauty. Anyone with half an ear would dimiss that as ignorant beyond words. You just have to listen to the BPO under Rattle to see how far that have sunk artistically since their golden 60-70s hayday. Very sad

MahlerTitan (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

there is some truth to you say. He definitely made records to improve his fortunates and fame. But to dismiss his artistry base on that is just idiotic.