Music's unmerry widows


Re. Mrs von Karajan - Didn't DG issue a Karajan series featuring Eliette's own artwork? Just how wealthy and influential is this woman? BTW. What ever happend to Herbert's brother, Wolfgang? Cheers David Cavlovic

Ja wohl David. In 1981 Eliette's daubs decorated the sleeves for Deutsche Grammophon's "Karajan-Edition" in their "Galleria" series. 50 original paintings adorned as many record sleeves for music ranging from Vivaldi to Stravinsky. A sample is above, and more information and a better image is here. An estimate by Die Welt puts Eliette von Karajan's wealth at 250 million euro (£187m/$366mUS).

Wolfgang von Karajan died in November 1987. He showed considerable promise in his early career as an electrical engineer, but never really capitalised on this and later tried to make a career in music. In 1984 HvK wanted EMI to record the Art of Fugue with his brother and himself, EMI declined. There was an uneasy relationship between the two brothers as HvK disliked Wolfgang's wife intensely. Wolfgang was a very different personality to Herbert, he was reclusive and slightly eccentric. Thankfully he didn't design record sleeves.

The headline is not mine, it comes from Pierre Boulez. Read about Die Unlustigen Witwen - music's unmerry widows here.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Pliable said…
Email received:

RE: Wolfgang von Karajan‏

He also dabbled in early music, so it seems. He has an ensemble credited in Sir Charles Mackerras' recording of de Cavalieri's Rapresentatione di Anima et di Corpo.

Cheers David Cavlovic

David, yes. In 1984 Karajan wanted EMI to record the Art of Fugue with his brother and himself. EMI declined. I'll add that to my article as it is an important point you raise. Thanks
5:17 pm
Pliable said…
davidderrick has left a new comment on your post "Music's unmerry widows":

Not 1981, surely? CDs only came in in March 83. This was around 89. Possibly for the genius's 80th birthday?'Scuse pedantry ...

David, see this post -

http://www.overgrownpath.com/2008/01/so-you-thought-classical-music-was-dead.html
10:46 am
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