Herbert von Karajan 1965-1966 Movie Documentary

Herbert von Karajan 1965-1966 Movie Documentary. This title begins with a 1965 motion picture of Karajan conducting the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 with the Wiener Symphoniker and Yehudi Menuhin. Then comes the 1966 motion picture of Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmoniker in the Dvořák Symphony No. 9 ("New World"). Finally, there are two bonus items in which Karajan discusses the art of conducting with Menuhin and Prof. Joachim Kaiser as well as a few (interesting) minutes of Karajan in rehearsal. The filming was the work of motion-picture director Henri-Georges Clouzot. Released 2010, the entire title is in black and white and has stereo or mono PCM sound. Grade: X-B

The original film prints shown in this title probably looked great in theaters. But that was 45 years ago, and the original films were soon put in storage. The PQ of this title is only fair when compared to, for example, the HDVD version of the Casablanca film with Humphrey Bogart. The sound is straight-jacketed. All this disqualifies this title from our website as performance of a concerto or symphony. Nevertheless, the title is included here as a documentary about the history of fine-arts video. These motion pictures of Karajan and the symphonic forces were ground-breaking. After this a number of operas were produced as motion pictures. But I know of no other classical concert motion pictures. Some classical music titles were produced in laserdisc and DVD, but these did not have high-definition video. Today we are getting, course,  excellent HDVD classical music titles with video and sound presentations vastly superior to the Karajan movies. But in another sense, the Karajan movies are better than anything else that has been done since. That's because the Karajan movies were made by Henri-Georges Clouzot, a fully-qualified and experienced motion picture director whose fame in his own field equaled the fame of Karajan as a conductor.

You have to see these Karajan films to understand what I'm talking about. The musicians in these films were made up, dressed, and positioned (very close together and in unusual formations) by Clouzot on special stages with decorations and low-level lighting aimed at getting a film noir look. You don't see a microphone anywhere. If you happened to see a few moments of this out of context, you might think it was a propaganda film or a crime thriller in which the conductor will be murdered on the podium. And, of course, Karajan looked more like a movie star than a symphony conductor.

In other words, the musicians were conducted by Karajan and directed by Clouzot simultaneously. No wonder they (all men---not a woman in the entire HDVD) all look so very intense and serious. The two films are quiet different, and the design of each is logically related to the character of the music. It's a little like the master chef who spends as much time working on how his dishes look as to how they taste.

With two such super-egos as Karajan and Clouzot at work, great things were bound to happen, and both films are impressive. But with two such super-egos at work, great things will not last long. After making 5 movies, the partnership broke up.

What does this suggest to us today? Well, maybe the time has finally arrived for the video director and the musical conductor to work together as equals in producing HDVDs that will be compelling to consumers. I do have one actual example to cite in our Vienna Philharmonic 2009 New Year's Concert title reported on this website. In that title Brian Large and Felix Breisach both contribute video of startling beauty. Large spices up the concert with shots of mountain landscapes, flower arrangements, and children dancing in the aisles. Breisach contributes fantastic bonus features where the video drives the music including dance numbers, the city of Linz as a performer, and members of the Vienna Philharmonic playing on fork-lift trucks and in a real live operating steel mill. I think Karajan and Clouzot would both be impressed.

I give the Karajan movie title the grade of X-B. Most people will not want this title. But if you are interested in the history and the future of fine-arts audio/video, you will probably treasure this title.