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June 8, 2001 Vancouver B.C.
Hello All:
Has anyone else had occasion to read Richard
Osborne's book on Herbert von Karajan -- A Life In Music? I came
across a passage in the book which underlined to me the point that Karajan and
Gould seemed to be kindred spirits. After all, it was Herbert who said of
Glenn Gould that "... he (Gould) created a style which led the way to the
future." And I know Karajan was just as interested in recording
technology. Anyway, this passage I'm referring to is found in chapter 78
where Osborne is relating a telephone conversation that took place between
Karajan and Michel Glotz concerning the recording of Brahms symphonies.
"...Karajan: 'Michel, the Brahms symphonies which we have also recorded.'
Glotz:
'Which we will start recording in the autumn.'
There was a pause at the other end of the line. Karajan: 'You know, I
thought
they
were already done. In my mind, they are prepared ... and now I am
already
thinking of other things.'
Old
men forget. But Karajan was not senile; the gods chastised his body
but he was spared the indignity of his father's Alzheimer's-ridden end.
My
friend, the composer Christopher Headington, was not at all surprised by
the story. Work that is fully and finally imagined, he said, is work that
is
finished; the execution is of little account.
Karajan's work was done in the mind. He read scores but never
annotated
them; he merely absorbed and pondered them..."
This book is available in Canada now on
Pimlico. I thought it may be of some related interest.
Sincerely,
Tim Hitchner
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