Vienna hadn’t heard such music in years—and it was all because the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s two conductors hated each other so.
Wilhelm Furtwängler had the edge in prestige but Herbert von Karajan, who is only 39, was pressing him closely. Twenty-three years younger than Furtwängler, Karajan was obviously a man of whom the world would be hearing more.
Karajan conducted the first concert of the Vienna season, and from then on he and Furtwängler took turns. Whatever Karajan did, Furtwängler set out to do better. When Karajan played an 18th Century classical suite by Locatelli, Furtwängler followed with a Handel suite. When Karajan conducted Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Furtwängler played Tchaikovsky’s Sixth.
Furtwängler is a conductor who swoops and sweeps; Karajan’s conducting is as precise as his beat. But he is just as much of a showman. He conducts everything from memory and with his eyes shut. When he finishes a piece, he holds a moment of silence before allowing any applause. Then, as if waking from a trance, he droops off stage.
Karajan is one of Austria’s best skiers, and a man who likes fast cars and high living. He first crossed his rival’s path back in the Nazi heyday. He was a dark and dapper little Austrian with relentless ambition, a Nazi before the Anschluss (Karajan’s part-Jewish wife became one of Germany’s five “honorary Aryans”). Goebbels backed Furtwängler; Goring backed Karajan. When Karajan became director of the Berlin State Opera, Furtwängler never got over it. And when Furtwängler was the first to be de-Nazified, Karajan in turn was furious. “They can stop me for one year or for ten years; I have time,” he said.
Last week, as Vienna’s concert season drew toward its close, it was obvious that no one would stop him for long. He is already scheduled to direct this summer’s festival in his native Salzburg. Says crack Vienna Critic Heinrich Kralik: “He is still young and will grow. If he continues his development, he may achieve Toscanini.” But, says cocksure Conductor Karajan, who once assisted Toscanini at the Salzburg festival: “Toscanini is Italian and I’m an Austrian. Nothing comes of emulating another conductor.”
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