Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Right from the start it is apparent that Karajan is a biographer's nightmare. Vaughan, who came to the maestro's attention as a yachtsman (he acknowledges straightaway that anyone with musical expertise wouldn't have had a hope of access), talks in his introduction about the contrast between writing a biography of the living and the deadwithout, however, making clear the extent to which Karajan, a controlling personality if ever there was one, had any say over the contents of the book in return for making himself occasionally available. In any case, the portrait that results from what seems like an oddly uneasy relationship is the most complete we have of a remarkable and rather unappealing personality. Vain, driven and ruthlessly ambitious, the conductor clawed his way to the top of Germany's musical life during the Nazi years and, after the death of Wilhelm Furtwangler in the early 1950s, has been at the summit of European music ever since. With his two great orchestras, the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, his staggeringly opulent opera festivals at Salzburg and his hundreds of recordings, Karajan has been for 30 years a powerful, streamlined juggernaut only now, in his mid-70s, beginning to show signs of wear. Vaughan does his best to elucidate the Nazi past, though parts of it seem likely to remain ever mysterious. In the end the portrait he has drawn is more that of a master politician whose field happens to be music than that of a truly creative being; and perhaps that is what he intended. (April 21) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Vaughan presents the most complete and up-to-date picture of one of the most controversial figures of the musical world. Both lauded and condemned by critics, von Karajan conducts from memory (including more than 50 operas), is an avid outdoor sportsman (racing cars, sailing, flying), and has the money and power to support a monumental ego. Relying heavily on Paul Robinson's Karajan (1975), Ernst Haeusserman's Herbert von Karajan (1978), and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's On and Off the Record (CH, Sep '82) for background detail, Vaughan's two years of conversation with and observation of von Karajan have enabled him to draw a compelling picture of the man who has dominated the European musical world for 30 years. Showing high quality in publishing as well as content, Vaughn's book merits consideration by all libraries from secondary through public, community, and university levels.-D.G. Engelhardt, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Kirkus Book Review

Despite his concern that his lack of musical credentials ensured a non-technical portrait, journalist Vaughan serves up a perceptive, delectable pastiche of frank interviews and insight (the first authorized in English) the notoriously press-shy, revered and hated 77-year-old Austrian conductor, a giant of the vanishing autocratic school, which bred the unique aura of musical dictatorship and awed respect for genius that surrounds the great maestros. Vaughn spent two years travelling and conversing extensively with this powerfully arrogant, self. styled ""commander"" whose carefully calculated six-decade plus career has awarded him a unique ""God's"" monopolistic control over German and Austrian musical life. This wunder-kind, who began as a child piano prodigy, directs the Vienna Philharmonic, and has been, at various stages, director of the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg and Easter Festivals, the London Philharmonic and the German wing of La Scala. But it is his nearly 30-year ""marriage"" to the Berlin Philharmonic, the crown jewel of his vast operatic and orchestral influence and one of the world's premier ensembles, that best reflects his musical ""mission."" Under its ""lifelong director,"" the Berlin has accomplished the purist, ""literalist,"" approach to re-creating the great scores, through a magnificent, lush pristine precision of sound, which has been acclaimed an exquisite musical marvel, but criticized for its cold passionless ""brillance. . .shining translucency of a perfectly formed icicle,"" which some would call a perfect mirror of its ""father."" This accomplished pilot, sailor, skier, mountain climber, yoga and Zen enthusiast, and filmmaker has dedicated his life to rigidly enforcing his personal credo of control, order and perfection; he places himself above reproach, completely intolerant of any contradiction, flippantly dismissing charges of dictatorship with blatant insistence that autocratic power is essential to superior musical leadership, hence performance. Most of the vast cast that he uses--musicians, recording technicians, production people, operatic soloists--have finally bowed to his control, relishing the honor of working with a master, and, with few exceptions, his reign has been an astonishingly unchallenged solo flight of power. This arrogant attitude also explains his lifelong refusal to apologize for having joined the Nazis during WW II, an episode which has invited colleagues' loathing and plagued his otherwise spectacularly charmed career, and about which he speaks at length here for the first time. As promised, this isn't the standard scholarly biography, but rather a privileged glimpse into the Karajan world, a fascinating ""insiders"" portrait; accomplished only with the cooperation of Karajan and his intimates, as well as the author's objective humor and critical insight, the result is a tasty, detailed, view of an unapproachable musical icon. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.