Post by darkehmen on Jan 22, 2008 7:59:12 GMT 1
I don't know if any readers from North America remember this, but a performance of Karajan conducting Eine Alpensinfonie was actually televised on PBS (the U.S. public-broadcasting network) once, while the conductor was alive.
And to make it more intriguing, it was definitely not the 1983 video that Telemondial released.
Unfortunately, unlike the Breakfast with the Arts programs that I mentioned a while ago, I did not tape this airing. The broadcast occurred in the late '80s, and I don't think my family even had a VCR at the time.
It was actually my first-ever glimpse of Karajan conducting, and I wouldn't see him "in action" again until many years later, when I purchased my first Telemondial laserdisc -- the Beethoven 9th. (I somehow missed the 1987 Vienna concert.)
I was pretty young at the time, and the tone poem was rather beyond me. I didn't even have it on CD, so it was a lot to take in at a first hearing. But I watched the broadcast with great anticipation because I was dying to see the famous conductor work his magic.
I remember him being in advanced years, and at times he visibly winced, as if in actual physical pain. He was definitely older than he was in the performance on the 1983 laserdisc, and I recall the broadcast well enough to remember that it had a somewhat different look than the version that Telemondial released.
I've seen various concert lists which note that Karajan returned to the work in 1987, and that date would square with my recollected date of this performance. While not "live" (it was broadcast during prime time, EST), it was probably a tape of a very recent concert. Again, it was definitely before the conductor's death, but also much later than 1983.
This leads me to suspect that what a reader mentioned in a different thread could well be true -- there could indeed be more than a few tapes of Karajan conducting for live television in existence in ZDF or ORF archives. This Alpensinfonie was almost certainly from Berlin, and it was obviously with the BPO, and it was not the version that Telemondial released. (And how interesting that PBS aired it.) Where there is one such tape, there could be others.
I'm just curious if any other North American visitors remember this unique broadcast . . .
And to make it more intriguing, it was definitely not the 1983 video that Telemondial released.
Unfortunately, unlike the Breakfast with the Arts programs that I mentioned a while ago, I did not tape this airing. The broadcast occurred in the late '80s, and I don't think my family even had a VCR at the time.
It was actually my first-ever glimpse of Karajan conducting, and I wouldn't see him "in action" again until many years later, when I purchased my first Telemondial laserdisc -- the Beethoven 9th. (I somehow missed the 1987 Vienna concert.)
I was pretty young at the time, and the tone poem was rather beyond me. I didn't even have it on CD, so it was a lot to take in at a first hearing. But I watched the broadcast with great anticipation because I was dying to see the famous conductor work his magic.
I remember him being in advanced years, and at times he visibly winced, as if in actual physical pain. He was definitely older than he was in the performance on the 1983 laserdisc, and I recall the broadcast well enough to remember that it had a somewhat different look than the version that Telemondial released.
I've seen various concert lists which note that Karajan returned to the work in 1987, and that date would square with my recollected date of this performance. While not "live" (it was broadcast during prime time, EST), it was probably a tape of a very recent concert. Again, it was definitely before the conductor's death, but also much later than 1983.
This leads me to suspect that what a reader mentioned in a different thread could well be true -- there could indeed be more than a few tapes of Karajan conducting for live television in existence in ZDF or ORF archives. This Alpensinfonie was almost certainly from Berlin, and it was obviously with the BPO, and it was not the version that Telemondial released. (And how interesting that PBS aired it.) Where there is one such tape, there could be others.
I'm just curious if any other North American visitors remember this unique broadcast . . .
