Robert Dornhelm DVD

[Dave]

Hi,

First time poster, long time lurker here. In the last week I have managed to see both the Dornhelm film and the Friedel one, and I found the former to be much more my cup of tea. What I thought most admirable about it was the way in which it formed a narrative, despite not having a narration. Despite the Friedel one having a narrator, the film felt cobbled together, fragmented, and without structure. It threw in little bits of information, half developed them, and then went onto something else entirely. It never flowed, which is something I thought the Dornhelm one did superbly. It had a timeline, but it constructed one through the contributions themselves, and I also think that film had the better group of interviewees. The Friedel had some strengths; alongside the great ending, I also liked the emphasis it placed on Karajan's youth. But I think it's telling that I sent the Friedel film back after I had finished it, while I kept the Dornhelm film and watched it twice more.

[Rosy]

Hello Dave, and welcome!

I think that you've read my article on documentaries, I would only add that Gernot Friedel film is very poetic and very moving. The Robert Dornhelm film has another style, it's perhaps more useful who wants to learn more about the Maestro. Precisely because their diversity, I like both!

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Best Regards

Rosy

[Dave]

Hi Rosy,

Yes, I think it did try to take a poetic approach. It felt like a ballad to man, what with the way it kept returning to that band Karajan saw as a young boy. That said, things about it still got on my nerves; particularly the way in which it seem to chuck bits of random trivia in there without explanation. I'll give you an example. There's a bit where the film mentions an artist Karajan became friendly with, and how this coincided with Karajan recording Berg and Hindemith. The film stated that the result of this was "a definitive recording", but it never mentioned what that recording was of. I'm not well versed in either of those composers, so the fact that it played an extract didn't help. It was just little things like that; it hurried from one thing to another, and didn't paint the picture as well as I would have liked. There is another example I recall involving an old organ; it mentioned it, and then moved on when the original comment had perked my interest.

However, at the same time, I watched the Art of Conducting documentaries, and I found their treatment of Karajan to be nothing short of appalling. Every single person in those documentaries was praised to high heaven, except Karajan. In one part, the only person to discuss Karajan was Werner Tharichen, who dismissed him as a "salesman"; we all know the history between the two. And the other part had John Elliot Gardiner calling what Karajan did to music "evil". I'm all for differing viewpoints on music, but I felt both those documentaries dealt with Karajan is a very dismissive and unprofessional manner. To their credit, both the Dornhelm and Friedel films show how things should be done.

[Rosy]

HI Dave,

I read very carefully your post. You know, my hope, my Chimera is "to meet" the Maestro, so I try to assess what I provision, which is very poor. Your comments are right; I wrote that those documentaries I like. It's true, however, doesn't satisfy me, because there are too many topics vague or interrupted on most beautiful and this ruin the pleasure to watch a particular that drew my interest. Now, I'm waiting a couple of old films, I'm very curious to see the content. Of course, I'll tell you.

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Meanwhile, I continue to read the book "Herbert von Karajan, Il musico perpetuo". There is my post in the section Book.

Rosy

[charlesb]

Response to Waldstein's latest post in this thread:

The 1941 "Meistersinger" excerpt is all that was filmed of the performance. It was originally part of a newsreel, not an attempt to film the whole performance.

The whole of the 1987 Liebestod is on the "Karajan in Salzburg" DVD, so far only released in Japan (the VHS video was originally released worldwide). The DVD is available from HMV in Japan (http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/2713120). Unfortunately the rest of the 1987 Wagner concert (including the Tristan Prelude) has not been released on video (although of course it is on CD).