Knappertsbusch conducts Beethoven's "Eroica" finale (1944)

[Gorboduc]

I love that cue at 1:33.



[KishoAudioVisual]

He was THE BEST ... He could make ANY Composer sound Special ... That's Knappertsbusch ... Master ... Teacher ... Genius ... LOVE.

[TheVaccumtube]

I see Kna in action for the first time and very impressed, he conduct his orchestra with such stern look and with such dignity, wow, what a hard-boiled guy from an old school... we don't find such a character on the podium any more cos we're living in the soft age with full of mediocres trying hard to be "somebody"... pity isn't it ? Here's to great oldman, Knappertsbusch !! zieg heil you certainly got a style !!

[lauderfrost]

By this time the splendid Berlin Philharmonie had been bombed and this is being performed in the still standing and fairly new (1930s) German Opera House which had been constructed in a fairly classical style. After this was bombed the orchestra moved to the Admiral's Palace theatre (which still exists), near Friedrichstrasse station.

[MKUltra3]

This was the record Lila found on the turntable in Norman's bedroom in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho'....

[mondieumonvieux]

The man certainly had style! What a character he must have been. One of the great conductors of the era? Unquestionably. How he got the orchestra to deliver with such passion and outstanding delivery, when he himself was clearly burning on the inside only, is truly a marvel to behold.

[alternatehistories]

Note the Swastika on the furniture about 2 meters behind the maestro! Also the accasional SS uniform in the audience. Just another day in Hitler's Germany.

[pupulique]

fantastic.

[mario54671]

Does the applause not exist, or is somehow including the applause gonna extend this not-even-three-minute video somehow over the ten minute limit??

[ShawDAMAN]

I love his style. Bit quicker on the finale than I'd like but great stuff.

[oosawashuuji]

１９４４年４月の演奏だけど、当時のドイツの状況は東部戦線は崩­壊寸前、西部方面は米英軍の上陸が迫った、まさに一番緊張した中­での演奏だったんでしょうね。

[CowHoofOnAHotPlate]

lol, why is the vid sped up?

[Mitch7799]

Incredible this tension! Just unique!

[vcoheda]

great clip!

[momentimusicali]

Unbelievable... just imagíne what was happening at the same time "outside"...

Yes, Knapperstbusch is one of the greatest conductors of all times, his concentrated appearance and full control over every detail and context while conducting, is obvious and unquestionable...

Thanks for posting this historic document from obscure times...

[NnFfBb]

Frenchhorns... Always the first to crack

[madeirelll]

belissimo maestro e um classico superior de todos os tempos.

[klizmophil]

Unbelieveable...

[darthalbinomidget]

perhaps its just the recording quality, but this is the worst eroica performance I've ever heard.

[ipmoic]

Many younger viewers may not realize the extent to which Knappertsbusch was revered and admired. His name has somehow left us, while Karajan, Furtwangler and Klemperer remain. Too bad, as Knappersbusch was certainly in the same league--and better than some in my opinion.

[grevenulrich]

none of you no nothing . he was very much against adolf hitler. check your books. his uncles grand son

[billyguns2]

Thanks for this bit of history; how many other treasures exist from Nazi wartime?Does anybody know why Knappertsbusch wasn't tainted he Nazi stripe as (rightly or wrongly) Furtwangler, Karajan and Bohm were?

[Ronald070]

Interesting clip! This must be the concert in honour of Hitler, on the eve of his 55th birthday, 19 April 1944, in the Staatsoper Berlin. The home of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Alte Philharmonie, was already destroyed in March 1944. Note the lectern in front of the orchestra, decorated with a swastika. Apparently a birthdayspeech preceded the concert. Source: the register of Kna's concerts, to be found on the internet

[tannenbergbund]

Knappertsbusch fell out of favor with AH in the 30's. AH seemed not to like his style of directing. It is his lack of any association with the NSDAP that he was chosen to conduct Parifal by Wieland and Wolfgang at the '51 Bayreuth. Your use of the word 'tainted' should be replaced with the word 'smeared', as the conductors you name were by the Allied occupation forces.

[billyguns2]

Yes, you're right; they were all smeared, especially Furtwangler, who was interrogated as if he was a common criminal.

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

Karajan was also out of favour with Hitler, who objected to his Meistersinger. Yet Karajan has been smeared as a Nazi ever since, with no justification whatsoever. Karajan was so disgusted by the smears that he refused ever to discuss the issue but this only made things worse.

[emtube]

Please don't try to put Karajan and Furtwangler into the same category. Karajan willingly joined the Nazi Party to advance his career, using his connections with the Nazi leadership. Furtwangler never did so, and tried to protect his Jewish musicians, even protesting prohibition of music by Jewish composers like Mendelssohn. After Furtwangler's death, Celebidache was considered most likely to assume leadership of the Berlin Phil, but Karajan's self-promotion unfortunately won out.

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

I'm glad that you appreciate that Furtwangler was innocent of Nazi affiliations; few people understand this. But Karajan's self-promotion needs to be seen in the context of the persecution he had to put up with for so many of his early years. Richard Osborne's 800-page biography of Karajan is valuable, because it examines the evidence objectively and although Karajan's self-promotion is not denied, there are mitigating psychological factors.

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

I revere Celibidache (especially his Bruckner) but he lost the BPO mainly because in principle he was against recording, whereas the orchestra wanted a recording contract. Yes, Karajan joined the Nazi party to get a job, but he resigned his membership VERY soon after joining. The "de-Nazification" tribunal after the war found him innocent (the transcripts of the proceedings are in Osborne's amazing biography). Honestly, the legend of "Karajan as Nazi" is really little more than a myth.

[emtube]

Thank you for this information about Karajan. I apologize to his memory for my mistaken understanding.

Still, I would say that, given what I know about his post-war activities, there is no denying that self-promotion may be one of his most outstanding characteristics. But with the weakness of the classical music fan demography these days, perhaps an energetic promoter like Karajan would be something to wish for...

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

Yes, Karajan was obsessive in some respects. But the long Richard Osborne biography helps us to understand Karajan better, and he emerges with more humanity than I expected. After reading the book, I returned to his recordings with renewed interest. One remarkable fact which emerges is that Hitler personally tried to block the progress of Karajan's career; Karajan also married a Jewish wife during the Nazi era, which didn't help his career either.

[Germanicus666]

"Karajan also married a Jewish wife during the Nazi era...."

Rudolf Hess's friend Professor Karl Haushofer was also married to a Jewish woman. It's interesting how when you get down to the details about what happened to specific people in the Third Reich, the nazis weren't so fanatical as we thought.

[corachka]

what sort of completely twisted thing to say is that!?

[Germanicus666]

What makes you so sure that Karajan joined the NSDAP just to advance his career? Furtwaengler and Knappertsbusch don't seem to have suffered for not joining.

[emtube]

I'm sorry I don't have detailed information about this such as BrucknerEnthusiast seems to, but I could only suggest the possibility that, as both Knappertsbusch and especially Furtwangler were already so well established, even revered, it would have been more difficult for the Nazis to apply political pressure on them.

There is also the aspect of Karajan's ambition to use whatever means at his disposal to promote his career...but that is my opinion.

[Germanicus666]

Well, I think if you add into the equation the fact that Hitler was wildly popular, it becomes absurd to suggest without specific evidence that Karajan joined the NSDAP just to advance his career. Most people in Germany supported the National-Socialist government.

[emtube]

Good point. Look how many in America support (supported?) Bush, while outside of America the perception of his worth is radically different.

The Nazis excelled at opinion-shaping propaganda -- which they learned from the examples of England & America in WWI. (But that opens another can of worms...)

[P1B1U1H1]

@emtube This conductor was an anti-Nazi who risked his life by publicly criticizing Goebbels. Equating anyone today to those monsters disgraces the person making the comparison.

[deramr]

Knappertsbusch was in fact banned from performing by the American occupation authorities for a couple of years, but the ban was quickly overturned and a letter apologizing for the "mistake" sent. Kna was rightly incensed. He was anti-nazi, sometimes refusing to work with nazi-supported singers, not to mention losing his appointment in Bavaria and getting slapped a Germany-wide performance ban for being "unsympathetic" to the "new Germany", forcing him to move to Austria at the time.

[billyguns2]

I've heard that Hitler and Goebbels would make fun of Kna and praise "das Wunder Karajan." Thanks for letting me know about Kna's opposition to Nazis. Everyone I knew who knew him and worked with him adored him.

[Invisus944]

What you say is true except for the part of Hitler praising Karajan. After he witnessed Karajan having a memory lapse in a performance of a Wagner opera, he garnered a strong hatred for the young man.

[SugarTomAppleRoger]

@deramr I don't care what the murderous Americans thought. The swine tried to bomb this beautiful orchestra into oblivion. They hated the German people and still do.

[lauderfrost]

@deramr says that Knappertsbusch was anti the wartime government, but I have read no authority which says that. At best he was fairly neutral/non-political, and he conducted throughout the war in Germany and occupied Europe as well as Spain. One of his most sensational wartime recordings is Bruckner's 4th Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic on 8th September 1944 performed/recorded in Baden-Baden.