Music: The Orchestra Builder

When the applause thunders at the end of a Berlin Philharmonic concert, Conductor Herbert von Karajan is not eager to step to the podium. Instead, he prefers to stand among the strings, his head bowed, a faint smile on his face, indicating by an occasional gesture of his hand that the credit belongs to the men of his orchestra. The applause has thundered almost continuously for the Philharmonic during the four-week U.S.-Canadian tour that ends this week, and few who recall the Philharmonic’s visit to the U.S. six years ago are deceived by Von Karajan’s modesty: to him clearly belongs the credit for putting the Berlin Philharmonic once again among the world’s finest symphony orchestras.

Not in the Way. When the Philharmonic made its first visit to the U.S. in 1955, Von Karajan had taken over only four months earlier at the death of the great Wilhelm Furtwangler. In its two U.S. tours—1955 and 1956—the Philharmonic was a consistent disappointment. Sturdy, polished and restrained, the orchestra seemed to suffer both from muddy sound and lethargic spirit. On its third tour, it has seemed like a new orchestra. The sound is still heavier than that of U.S. orchestras but the heaviness no longer gets in the way of the music making. The Philharmonic contributed some performances nobody could forget—a shimmering Ravel Daphnis and Chloe, a surgingly powerful Bruckner Seventh Symphony, a glowing Beethoven Third, all of them conveyed with darkly colored intensity.

In returning the orchestra to its prewar eminence, Von Karajan had first to win the confidence of his players. They had reluctantly voted him in as conductor in 1955 because he was the only candidate fit to fill Furtwangler’s shoes. But many recalled and resented the rivalry for musical preferment between Von Karajan and Furtwangler that had raged for years, and they further resented Von Karajan’s playboy reputation as a driver of sports cars and a skipper of his own 50-ton yacht.

More to the Moderns. At his first rehearsal after Furtwangler’s death, Von Karajan told the orchestra: “We will make music as you have always made music.” He soon began to demonstrate his own good faith by increasing his tours and recording commitments with the orchestra despite the most hectic musical schedule maintained by any major conductor: Von Karajan is artistic director of the Vienna State Opera and a conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, directs major opera recordings for London’s Philharmonic Orchestra, appears regularly at Milan’s La Scala and at Salzburg.

Since he took over the Berlin Philharmonic, Von Karajan has hired ten new first deskmen, has replaced 17 other instrumentalists. Under his direction, the orchestra has played less of the German classical repertory to devote more time to the moderns. The result, even the old hands admit, is worthy of the best of the Berlin Philharmonic’s hallowed tradition.