Kortrijk

File:Kortrijk.png
Full name	Koninklijke Voetbalclub Kortrijk
Nickname(s)	De Kerels
Founded	1901
Ground	Guldensporenstadion, Kortrijk (Capacity: 9,399)
Chairman	Joseph Allijns
Manager	Hein Vanhaezebrouck
League	Belgian Pro League
2010-11	Belgian Pro League, 10th Group B Europa League Playoff, 4th
Home colours Away colours

Koninklijke Voetbalclub Kortrijk (often simply called Kortrijk or KVK) is a Belgian professional football club based in Kortrijk, West Flanders. They have been playing in the Belgian Pro League since the 2008-09 season, and they achieved their best ranking ever during the 2009-10 season, finishing 4th after the play-offs. Kortrijk was founded in 1971, though their roots can be traced to 1901. They are registered to the Royal Belgian Football Association with matricule number 19. The club colours are red and white. They play their home matches at the Guldensporenstadion, named after the Battle of the Golden Spurs which took place in Kortrijk in 1302.

Kortrijk enjoyed a first spell in the first division in the early 20th century, between 1906-07 and 1910-11. They eventually had to wait 65 years to return at the highest level, when they enjoyed 15 seasons at the top flight, interrupted by a season in the second division (between 1976-77 and 1978-79 and between 1980-81 and 1991-92). Kortrijk also played the 1998-99 season in the first division before they returned in 2008-09.

History[link]

In 1901 SC Courtraisien was founded. The club merged with FC Courtraisien in 1918. They received in 1951 the name Koninklijke Kortrijk Sport. They had the matricule n°19 like the oldest club SC Courtraisien. Stade Kortrijk was founded in 1923 with matricule n°161. Because Stade Kortrijk and Koninklijke Kortrijk Sport didn't play well anymore, they merged in 1971. They could play with matricule n°19 and the new name was KV Kortrijk.

Due to a bankruptcy, KV Kortrijk had to relegate in 2001 to the third division. From 2004 to 2008 KV Kortrijk played in the second division, however in the 2007-08 season they managed to get promoted to the first division. The club is also home to the majority of Swansea City A.F.C. fans from Belgium.

Honours[link]

• Belgian Cup:
  • Runners-up (1): 2011–12
• Belgian Second Division:
  • Winners (2): 1905–06, 2007–08
  • Runners-up (2): 1979–80, 1997–98
• Belgian Second Division Final Round:
  • Winners (3): 1976, 1980, 1998

Colours & badge[link]

KV Kortrijk's colours are generally red and white. The home kit is usually all red with a white trim, and red shorts. The away kit is similar, except in blue. The club's logo is a white shield, split into thirds by a red upside-down, V-like shape, and the letters "KVK" are split into each third, in a red font. On top of the shield is a crown.

Stadium[link]

KV Kortrijk play their home matches at the Guldensporen Stadion. It is located in Kortrijk, Belgium, and the current capacity of the ground is 9,399. In the summer of 2008, the grounds capacity was increased from 6,896 to 9,399, after Kortrijk's elevation into the Belgian First Division. Guldensporenstadion literally means "Stadium of the Golden Spurs". The stadium is named after this in reference to the Battle of the Golden Spurs which, in 1302, was fought in Kortrijk. The stadium has a traditional local stadium look about it, and is single-tiered all around the ground.

Current squad[link]

As of 25 July, 2011

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Kristof van Hout 2 DF David Vandenbroek (on loan from Zulte-Waregem) 3 DF Baptiste Martin 4 MF Ismaïla N'Diaye 5 DF Alassane També 6 DF David Wijns 7 FW Steven Joseph-Monrose 8 MF Nebojša Pavlović 9 FW Dalibor Veselinović (on loan from Anderlecht) 10 FW Ernest Nfor 11 DF Mustapha Oussalah

No. Position Player 12 MF Geoffrey Ghesquire 14 DF Landry Mulemo 15 FW Dieter Meulenyzer 16 GK Darren Keet 17 MF Gertjan De Mets 18 FW Pablo Chavarría (on loan from Anderlecht) 19 MF Brecht Dejaegere 20 MF Mohamed Messoudi 21 MF Brecht Capon 23 DF Ervin Zukanović 77 MF Péter Czvitkovics

Players out on loan[link]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 12 FW Ebrahim Savaneh (at RAEC Mons)

Famous former players[link]

Managers[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Fansite
• Kortrijk at UEFA.COM
• Kortrijk at EUFO.DE
• Kortrijk at Weltfussball.de
• Kortrijk at Playerhistory.com
• Kortrijk at Transfermarkt.de
• Kortrijk at Football Squads.co.uk
• Kortrijk at National Football Teams.com
• Kortrijk at Football-Lineups.com

Kurt Vile
Vile performing at Roskilde Festival 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Kurt Vile
Born	1980
Origin	Lansdowne, PA[1]
Genres	Rock, heartland rock, roots rock, lo-fi, indie rock
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Vocals/Guitar/Trumpet/Banjo/Keyboard
Labels	Matador Records
Associated acts	The War on Drugs

Kurt Vile (born 1980) is an American musician and singer-songwriter, signed to Matador Records as a solo artist in May 2009.^[2] Vile is a founding member of The War on Drugs.

His music has been likened to that of Bruce Springsteen.^[3] His influences include Fleetwood Mac, John Fahey, Bob Dylan and FM Rock generally.^[4] His first album for Matador Records is titled Childish Prodigy.^[5] In an interview with Women's Wear Daily, Sonic Youth bassist and singer Kim Gordon was asked, "Your guilty pleasure right now?" Gordon replied, "Listening to Kurt Vile's latest CD, Childish Prodigy. Guilty because I listen to it too much..."^[6]

Vile released two previous solo albums, God Is Saying This To You and Constant Hitmaker, on Mexican Summer and Woodsist, respectively. He plays solo shows as well as shows with a backing band called The Violators,^[2] which at times includes former The War on Drugs bandmate Adam Granduciel.

Vile's "He's Alright" is featured during the credits of Eastbound & Down in the second season's finale. Vile was chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they curated in May 2011.^[7]

Discography[link]

Solo[link]

Albums

• Constant Hitmaker (2008, Gulcher Records; 2009, Woodsist Records)
• God Is Saying This to You (2009, Mexican Summer)
• Childish Prodigy (2009, Matador Records)
• Smoke Ring for My Halo (2011, Matador Records) US chart: #154

EPs

• Fall Demons 7" EP (2009, Skulltones)
• The Hunchback 12" EP (2009, Richie Records)
• Square Shells 12" EP (2010, Matador Records)
• So Outta Reach 12" EP, Digital EP (2011, Matador Records)

Singles

• He's Alright 7" single (2009, Matador Records)
• In My Time 7" single (2010, Matador Records)

The War on Drugs[link]

Albums

• Wagonwheel Blues (2008)
• Slave Ambient (2011)

EPs

• Demo EP (2005)
• Barrel of Batteries (2007)

References[link]

Mozart circa 1780, by Johann Nepomuk della Croce.

Mozart's signature.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (German: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ amaˈdeus ˈmoːtsaʁt], English see fn.),^[1] baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart^[2] (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.

Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. His influence on subsequent Western art music is profound. Beethoven wrote his own early compositions in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."^[3]

Biography[link]

Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9, Salzburg, Austria.

Family and early years[link]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart at 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, capital of the sovereign Archbishopric of Salzburg in what is now Austria, but then was part of the Holy Roman Empire. His only sibling to survive infancy was his elder sister Maria Anna (1751–1829), nicknamed "Nannerl". Mozart was baptized the day after his birth at St. Rupert's Cathedral. The baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He generally called himself "Wolfgang Amadè Mozart"^[4] as an adult, but there were many variants.

His father (1719–1787) was from Augsburg. A minor composer and an experienced teacher, he was deputy Kapellmeister to the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg. In the year of Mozart's birth, his father published a violin textbook, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, which achieved success.

Anonymous portrait of the child Mozart, possibly by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni; painted in 1763 on commission from Leopold Mozart

When Nannerl was seven, she began keyboard lessons with her father while her three-year-old brother looked on. Years later, after her brother's death, she reminisced:

He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. [...] In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and pieces at the clavier. [...] He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. [...] At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down.^[5]

These early pieces, K. 1–5, were recorded in the Nannerl Notenbuch.

Biographer Maynard Solomon^[6] notes that, while Mozart's father was a devoted teacher to his children, there is evidence that Mozart was keen to progress beyond what he was taught. His first ink-spattered composition and his precocious efforts with the violin were of his own initiative and came as a surprise to his father.^[7] Mozart's father eventually gave up composing when his son's musical talents became evident.^[8] In his early years, Mozart's father was his only teacher. Along with music, he also taught his children languages and academic subjects.^[6]

The Mozart family on tour: Leopold, Wolfgang, and Nannerl. Watercolor by Carmontelle, ca. 1763^[9]

1762–1773: Years of travel[link]

During Mozart's youth, his family made several European journeys in which he and Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition, in 1762, at the court of the Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zurich, Donaueschingen, and Munich.

During this trip, Mozart met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, whom Mozart visited in London in 1764 and 1765. The family again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768. In 1767, during this period, Mozart composed the Latin drama Apollo et Hyacinthus first performed in Salzburg University.

These trips were often difficult and travel conditions were primitive.^[10] The family had to wait for invitations and reimbursement from the nobility and they endured long, near-fatal illnesses far from home: first Leopold (London, summer 1764)^[11] then both children (The Hague, autumn 1765).^[12]

After one year in Salzburg, father and son set off for Italy, leaving Mozart's mother and sister at home. This travel lasted from December 1769 to March 1771. As with earlier journeys, Mozart's father wanted to display his son's abilities as a performer and a rapidly maturing composer. Mozart met G. B. Martini, in Bologna, and was accepted as a member of the famous Accademia Filarmonica. In Rome, he heard Gregorio Allegri's Miserere twice in performance in the Sistine Chapel and wrote it out from memory, thus producing the first unauthorized copy of this closely guarded property of the Vatican.^[13][14]

In Milan, Mozart wrote the opera Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770), which was performed with success. This led to further opera commissions. He returned with his father later twice to Milan (August–December 1771; October 1772 – March 1773) for the composition and premieres of Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772). Mozart's father hoped these visits would result in a professional appointment for his son in Italy, but these hopes were never realized.^[15]

Toward the end of the final Italian journey, Mozart wrote the first of his works to be still widely performed today, the solo motet Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165.

1773–1777: The Salzburg court[link]

After finally returning with his father from Italy on 13 March 1773, Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. The composer had a great number of friends and admirers in Salzburg^[16] and had the opportunity to work in many genres, composing symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, serenades, and a few minor operas. Between April and December 1775, Mozart developed an enthusiasm for violin concertos, producing a series of five (the only ones he ever wrote), which steadily increased in their musical sophistication. The last three — K. 216, K. 218, K. 219 — are now staples of the repertoire. In 1776 he turned his efforts to piano concertos, culminating in the E-flat concerto K. 271 of early 1777, considered by critics to be a breakthrough work.^[17]

Despite these artistic successes, Mozart grew increasingly discontented with Salzburg and redoubled his efforts to find a position elsewhere. One reason was his low salary, 150 florins a year;^[18] Mozart also longed to compose operas, and Salzburg provided only rare occasions for these. The situation worsened in 1775 when the court theater was closed, especially since the other theater in Salzburg was largely reserved for visiting troupes.^[19]

Two long expeditions in search of work interrupted this long Salzburg stay: Mozart and his father visited Vienna from 14 July to 26 September 1773, and Munich from 6 December 1774 to March 1775. Neither visit was successful, though the Munich journey resulted in a popular success with the premiere of Mozart's opera La finta giardiniera.^[20]

1777–1778: The Paris journey[link]

Circa 1777; Portrait of Mozart wearing the Order of the Golden Spur, received in 1770 from Pope Clement XIV in Rome.^[21]

In August 1777, Mozart resigned his Salzburg position^[22] and, on September 23, ventured out once more in search of employment, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich.^[23]

Mozart became acquainted with members of the famous orchestra in Mannheim, the best in Europe at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters in a musical family. There were prospects of employment in Mannheim, but they came to nothing, and Mozart left for Paris on 14 March 1778^[24] to continue his search. One of his letters from Paris hints at a possible post as an organist at Versailles, but Mozart was not interested in such an appointment.^[25] He fell into debt and took to pawning valuables.^[26] The nadir of the visit occurred when Mozart's mother took ill and died on 3 July 1778.^[27] There had been delays in calling a doctor — probably, according to Halliwell, because of a lack of funds.^[28]

While Mozart was in Paris, his father was pursuing opportunities for his son back in Salzburg.^[29] With the support of local nobility, Mozart was offered a post as court organist and concertmaster. The yearly salary was 450 florins,^[30] but he was reluctant to accept.^[31] After leaving Paris on in September 1778, he tarried in Mannheim and Munich, still hoping to obtain an appointment outside Salzburg. In Munich, he again encountered Aloysia, now a very successful singer, but she was no longer interested in him.^[32] Mozart finally reached home on 15 January 1779 and took up the new position, but his discontent with Salzburg was undiminished.

Among the better known works that Mozart wrote on the Paris journey are the A minor piano sonata K. 310/300d and the "Paris" Symphony (no. 31); these were performed in Paris on 12 and 18 June 1778.^[33]

The Mozart family circa 1780. The portrait on the wall is of Mozart's mother.

1781: Departure to Vienna[link]

In January 1781, Mozart's opera Idomeneo premiered with "considerable success" in Munich.^[34] The following March the composer was summoned to Vienna, where his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, was attending the celebrations for the accession of Joseph II to the Austrian throne. Mozart, fresh from the adulation he had earned in Munich, was offended when Colloredo treated him as a mere servant and particularly when the archbishop forbade him to perform before the Emperor at Countess Thun's for a fee equal to half of his yearly Salzburg salary. The resulting quarrel came to a head in May: Mozart attempted to resign and was refused. The following month, permission was granted but in a grossly insulting way: the composer was dismissed literally "with a kick in the arse", administered by the archbishop's steward, Count Arco. Mozart decided to settle in Vienna as a freelance performer and composer.^[35]

The quarrel with the archbishop went harder for Mozart because his father sided against him. Hoping fervently that he would obediently follow Colloredo back to Salzburg, Mozart's father exchanged intense letters with his son, urging him to be reconciled with their employer. Mozart passionately defended his intention to pursue an independent career in Vienna. The debate ended when Mozart was dismissed by the archbishop, freeing himself both of his employer and his father's demands to return. Solomon characterizes Mozart's resignation as a "revolutionary step", and it greatly altered the course of his life.^[36]

Early Vienna years[link]

Mozart's new career in Vienna began well. He performed often as a pianist, notably in a competition before the Emperor with Muzio Clementi on 24 December 1781,^[35] and he soon "had established himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna".^[35] He also prospered as a composer, and in 1782 completed the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered on 16 July 1782 and achieved a huge success. The work was soon being performed "throughout German-speaking Europe",^[35] and fully established Mozart's reputation as a composer.

1782 portrait of Constanze Mozart by her brother-in-law Joseph Lange.

Near the height of his quarrels with Colloredo, Mozart moved in with the Weber family, who had moved to Vienna from Mannheim. The father, Fridolin, had died, and the Webers were now taking in lodgers to make ends meet.^[37] Aloysia, who had earlier rejected Mozart's suit, was now married to the actor and artist Joseph Lange. Mozart's interest shifted to the third Weber daughter, Constanze. The courtship did not go entirely smoothly; surviving correspondence indicates that Mozart and Constanze briefly separated in April 1782.^[38] Mozart also faced a very difficult task in getting his father's permission for the marriage.^[39] The couple were finally married on 4 August 1782 in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the day before his father's consent arrived in the mail.^[39]

The couple had six children, of whom only two survived infancy:

• Raimund Leopold (17 June – 19 August 1783)
• Karl Thomas Mozart (21 September 1784 – 31 October 1858)
• Johann Thomas Leopold (18 October – 15 November 1786)
• Theresia Constanzia Adelheid Friedericke Maria Anna (27 December 1787 – 29 June 1788)
• Anna Maria (died soon after birth, 25 December 1789)
• Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (26 July 1791 – 29 July 1844)

In the course of 1782 and 1783, Mozart became intimately acquainted with the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel as a result of the influence of Gottfried van Swieten, who owned many manuscripts of the Baroque masters. Mozart's study of these scores inspired compositions in Baroque style, and later influenced his personal musical language, for example in fugal passages in Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") and the finale of Symphony No. 41.^[40]

In 1783, Mozart and his wife visited his family in Salzburg. His father and sister were cordially polite to Constanze, but the visit prompted the composition of one of Mozart's great liturgical pieces, the Mass in C minor. Though not completed, it was premiered in Salzburg, with Constanze singing a solo part.^[41]

Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna around 1784, and the two composers became friends. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played together in an impromptu string quartet. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 421, K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465) date from the period 1782 to 1785, and are judged to be a response to Haydn's Opus 33 set from 1781.^[42] Haydn in 1785 told Mozart's father: "I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition."^[43] (See also: Haydn and Mozart)

From 1782 to 1785 Mozart mounted concerts with himself as soloist, presenting three or four new piano concertos in each season. Since space in the theaters was scarce, he booked unconventional venues: a large room in the Trattnerhof (an apartment building), and the ballroom of the Mehlgrube (a restaurant).^[44] The concerts were very popular, and the concertos he premiered at them are still firm fixtures in the repertoire. Solomon writes that during this period Mozart created "a harmonious connection between an eager composer-performer and a delighted audience, which was given the opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre".^[44]

With substantial returns from his concerts and elsewhere, Mozart and his wife adopted a rather plush lifestyle. They moved to an expensive apartment, with a yearly rent of 460 florins.^[45] Mozart also bought a fine fortepiano from Anton Walter for about 900 florins, and a billiard table for about 300.^[45] The Mozarts sent their son Karl Thomas to an expensive boarding school,^[46][47] and kept servants. Saving was therefore impossible, and the short period of financial success did nothing to soften the hardship the Mozarts were later to experience.^[48][49]

On 14 December 1784, Mozart became a Freemason, admitted to the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit ("Beneficence").^[50] Freemasonry played an important role in the remainder of Mozart's life: he attended meetings, a number of his friends were Masons, and on various occasions he composed Masonic music. (See also: Mozart and Freemasonry)

1786–1787: Return to opera[link]

Despite the great success of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart did little operatic writing for the next four years, producing only two unfinished works and the one-act Der Schauspieldirektor. He focused instead on his career as a piano soloist and writer of concertos. However, around the end of 1785, Mozart moved away from keyboard writing^{[51][page needed]} and began his famous operatic collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. 1786 saw the successful premiere of The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna. Its reception in Prague later in the year was even warmer, and this led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera Don Giovanni, which premiered in October 1787 to acclaim in Prague, and also met with success in Vienna in 1788. The two are among Mozart's most important works and are mainstays of the operatic repertoire today, though at their premieres their musical complexity caused difficulty for both listeners and performers. These developments were not witnessed by Mozart's father, who had died on 28 May 1787.

In December 1787, Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic patronage. Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his "chamber composer", a post that had fallen vacant the previous month on the death of Gluck. It was a part-time appointment, paying just 800 florins per year, and required Mozart only to compose dances for the annual balls in the Redoutensaal (see Mozart and dance). However, even this modest income became important to Mozart when hard times arrived. Court records show that Joseph's aim was to keep the esteemed composer from leaving Vienna in pursuit of better prospects.^[52]

In 1787 the young Ludwig van Beethoven spent several weeks in Vienna, hoping to study with Mozart.^[53] No reliable records survive to indicate whether the two composers ever met. (See also section "Influence" below)

1788–1790[link]

Drawing of Mozart in silverpoint, made by Dora Stock during Mozart's visit to Dresden, April 1789

Toward the end of the decade, Mozart's circumstances worsened. Around 1786 he had ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income shrank.^[54] This was a difficult time for musicians in Vienna because Austria was at war, and both the general level of prosperity and the ability of the aristocracy to support music had declined.^[51]

By mid-1788, Mozart and his family had moved from central Vienna to the suburb of Alsergrund.^[54] Although it has been thought that Mozart reduced his rental expenses, recent research shows that by moving to the suburb, Mozart had certainly not reduced his expenses (as claimed in his letter to Puchberg), but merely increased the housing space at his disposal.^[55] Mozart began to borrow money, most often from his friend and fellow Mason Michael Puchberg; "a pitiful sequence of letters pleading for loans" survives.^[56] Maynard Solomon and others have suggested that Mozart was suffering from depression, and it seems that his output slowed.^[57] Major works of the period include the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41, all from 1788), and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, Così fan tutte, premiered in 1790.

Around this time, Mozart made long journeys hoping to improve his fortunes: to Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin in the spring of 1789, and to Frankfurt, Mannheim, and other German cities in 1790. The trips produced only isolated success and did not relieve the family's financial distress. (See also: Mozart's Berlin journey)

1791[link]

Mozart's last year was, until his final illness struck, a time of great productivity — and by some accounts a time of personal recovery.^[58] He composed a great deal, including some of his most admired works: the opera The Magic Flute; the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B-flat); the Clarinet Concerto K. 622; the last in his great series of string quintets (K. 614 in E-flat); the motet Ave verum corpus K. 618; and the unfinished Requiem K. 626.

Mozart's financial situation, a source of extreme anxiety in 1790, finally began to improve. Although the evidence is inconclusive,^[59] it appears that wealthy patrons in Hungary and Amsterdam pledged annuities to Mozart in return for the occasional composition. He probably also benefited from the sale of dance music written in his role as Imperial chamber composer.^[59] Mozart no longer borrowed large sums from Puchberg, and made a start on paying off his debts.^[59]

He experienced great satisfaction in the public success of some of his works, notably The Magic Flute (performed many times in the short period between its premiere and Mozart's death)^[60] and the Little Masonic Cantata K. 623, premiered on 15 November 1791.^[61]

Final illness and death[link]

Posthumous painting by Barbara Krafft in 1819

Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the 6 September 1791 premiere of his opera La clemenza di Tito, written in that same year on commission for the Emperor's coronation festivities.^[62] He was able to continue his professional functions for some time, and conducted the premiere of The Magic Flute on 30 September. The illness intensified on 20 November, at which point Mozart became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting.^[63]

Mozart was nursed in his final illness by his wife and her youngest sister, and was attended by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. It is clear that he was mentally occupied with the task of finishing his Requiem. The evidence, however, that he actually dictated passages to his student Süssmayr is minimal.^[64][65]

Mozart died at 1 am on 5 December 1791 at the age of 35. The New Grove gives a matter-of-fact description of his funeral:

Mozart was buried in a common grave, in accordance with contemporary Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside the city on 7 December. If, as later reports say, no mourners attended, that too is consistent with Viennese burial customs at the time; later Jahn (1856) wrote that Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten and two other musicians were present. The tale of a storm and snow is false; the day was calm and mild.^[66]

The cause of Mozart's death cannot be known with certainty. The official record has it as "hitziges Frieselfieber" ("severe miliary fever", referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds), a description that does not suffice to identify the cause as it would be diagnosed in modern medicine. Researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death, including trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning, and a rare kidney ailment.^[67] The most widely accepted hypothesis is that Mozart died of acute rheumatic fever.^[68]

Mozart's modest funeral did not reflect his standing with the public as a composer: memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. Indeed, in the period immediately after his death, Mozart's reputation rose substantially: Solomon describes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm"^[69] for his work; biographies were written (first by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Nissen; see Biographies of Mozart); and publishers vied to produce complete editions of his works.^[69]

Appearance and character[link]

Unfinished portrait of Mozart by his brother-in-law Joseph Lange

Mozart's physical appearance was described by tenor Michael Kelly, in his Reminiscences: "a remarkably small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine, fair hair of which he was rather vain". As his early biographer Niemetschek wrote, "there was nothing special about [his] physique. [...] He was small and his countenance, except for his large intense eyes, gave no signs of his genius." His facial complexion was pitted, a reminder of his childhood case of smallpox. He loved elegant clothing. Kelly remembered him at a rehearsal: "[He] was on the stage with his crimson pelisse and gold-laced cocked hat, giving the time of the music to the orchestra." Of his voice his wife later wrote that it "was a tenor, rather soft in speaking and delicate in singing, but when anything excited him, or it became necessary to exert it, it was both powerful and energetic".^[70]

Mozart usually worked long and hard, finishing compositions at a tremendous pace as deadlines approached. He often made sketches and drafts; unlike Beethoven's these are mostly not preserved, as his wife sought to destroy them after his death.^[71] He was raised a Roman Catholic and remained a member of the Church throughout his life. (See also: Mozart and Roman Catholicism)

Mozart lived at the center of the Viennese musical world, and knew a great number and variety of people: fellow musicians, theatrical performers, fellow Salzburgers, and aristocrats, including some acquaintance with the Emperor Joseph II. Solomon considers his three closest friends to have been Gottfried von Jacquin, Count August Hatzfeld, and Sigmund Barisani; others included his older colleague Joseph Haydn, singers Franz Xaver Gerl and Benedikt Schack, and the horn player Joseph Leutgeb. Leutgeb and Mozart carried on a curious kind of friendly mockery, often with Leutgeb as the butt of Mozart's practical jokes.^[72]

He enjoyed billiards and dancing, and kept pets: a canary, a starling, a dog, and also a horse for recreational riding.^[73] He had a startling fondness for scatological humor, which is preserved in his surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart around 1777–1778, but also in his correspondence with his sister and parents.^[74] Mozart even wrote scatological music, a series of canons that he sang with his friends. (See also: Mozart and scatology)

Works, musical style, and innovations[link]

Style[link]

Mozart's signature.

Mozart's music, like Haydn's, stands as an archetype of the Classical style. At the time he began composing, European music was dominated by the style galant, a reaction against the highly evolved intricacy of the Baroque. Progressively, and in large part at the hands of Mozart himself, the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque emerged once more, moderated and disciplined by new forms, and adapted to a new aesthetic and social milieu. Mozart was a versatile composer, and wrote in every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including string quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. These forms were not new, but Mozart advanced their technical sophistication and emotional reach. He almost single-handedly developed and popularized the Classical piano concerto. He wrote a great deal of religious music, including large-scale masses, but also dances, divertimenti, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment.

The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491; the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550; and the opera Don Giovanni. Charles Rosen makes the point forcefully:

"It is only through recognizing the violence and sensuality at the center of Mozart's work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way, Schumann's superficial characterization of the G minor Symphony can help us to see Mozart's daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous."^[75]

Especially during his last decade, Mozart exploited chromatic harmony to a degree rare at the time, with remarkable assurance and to great artistic effect.

Mozart always had a gift for absorbing and adapting valuable features of others' music. His travels helped in the forging of a unique compositional language.^[76] In London as a child, he met J.C. Bach and heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna he met with other compositional influences, as well as the avant-garde capabilities of the Mannheim orchestra. In Italy he encountered the Italian overture and opera buffa, both of which deeply affected the evolution of his own practice. In London and Italy, the galant style was in the ascendent: simple, light music with a mania for cadencing; an emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other harmonies; symmetrical phrases; and clearly articulated partitions in the overall form of movements.^[77] Some of Mozart's early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three movements running into each other; many are homotonal (all three movements having the same key signature, with the slow middle movement being in the relative minor). Others mimic the works of J.C. Bach, and others show the simple rounded binary forms turned out by Viennese composers.

As Mozart matured, he progressively incorporated more features adapted from the Baroque. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201 has a contrapuntal main theme in its first movement, and experimentation with irregular phrase lengths. Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn, who had included three such finales in his recently published Opus 20 set. The influence of the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") period in music, with its brief foreshadowing of the Romantic era, is evident in the music of both composers at that time. Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor K. 183 is another excellent example.

Mozart would sometimes switch his focus between operas and instrumental music. He produced operas in each of the prevailing styles: opera buffa, such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte; opera seria, such as Idomeneo; and Singspiel, of which Die Zauberflöte is the most famous example by any composer. In his later operas he employed subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture, and tone color, for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts. Here his advances in opera and instrumental composing interacted: his increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was in turn reflected in his later non-operatic compositions.^[78]

Influence[link]

Mozart's most famous pupil, whom the Mozarts took into their Vienna home for two years as a child, was probably Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a transitional figure between Classical and Romantic eras.^[79] More important is the influence Mozart had on composers of later generations. Ever since the surge in his reputation after his death, studying his scores has been a standard part of the training of classical musicians.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart's junior by fifteen years, was deeply influenced by his work, with which he was acquainted as a teenager. He is thought to have performed Mozart's operas while playing in the court orchestra at Bonn,^[80] and he traveled to Vienna in 1787 hoping to study with the older composer. Some of Beethoven's works have direct models in comparable works by Mozart, and he wrote cadenzas (WoO 58) to Mozart's D minor piano concerto K. 466.

A number of composers have paid homage to Mozart by writing sets of variations on his themes. Beethoven wrote four such sets (Op. 66, WoO 28, WoO 40, WoO 46). Others include Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni (1827); Max Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart (1914), based on the variation theme in the piano sonata K. 331;^[81] Fernando Sor's Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart (1821); and Mikhail Glinka's Variations on a Theme from Mozart's Opera Die Zauberflöte in E♭ major (1822). Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote his Orchestral Suite No. 4 in G, "Mozartiana" (1887), as a tribute to Mozart.

Köchel catalogue[link]

For unambiguous identification of works by Mozart, a Köchel catalogue number is used. This is a unique number assigned, in regular chronological order, to every one of his known works. A work is referenced by the abbreviation "K." followed by this number. The first edition of the catalogue was completed in 1862 by Ludwig von Köchel. It has since been repeatedly updated, as scholarly research improves knowledge of the dates and authenticity of individual works.

See also[link]

	Book: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• The Complete Mozart Edition, 180 compact discs arranged into 45 themed volumes released by Philips Classics Records in 2000.
• Mozart effect
• Mozart family
• Mozart in fiction
• Mozartkugel
• Mozarteum
• Mozarthaus Vienna
• Sociological and cultural aspects of Tourette syndrome – for discussion of the discredited view that Mozart suffered from Tourette's syndrome

Notes[link]

References[link]

Cited sources

• Abert, Hermann (2007). W. A. Mozart. Cliff Eisen (ed.), Stewart Spencer (trans.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07223-5. OCLC 70401564. http://books.google.com/books?id=l6I6BwTMJ3sC. 
• Barry, Barbara R (2000). The Philosopher's Stone: Essays in the Transformation of Musical Structure. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press. ISBN 1-57647-010-5. OCLC 466918491. http://books.google.com/books?id=whSIM4Snh7YC. 
• Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965). Mozart: A Documentary Biography. Peter Branscombe, Eric Blom, Jeremy Noble (trans.). Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0233-1. OCLC 8991008. http://books.google.com/books?id=e8AtwaddUW4C. 
• Einstein, Alfred (1965). Mozart: His Character, His Work. Galaxy Book 162. Arthur Mendel, Nathan Broder (trans.) (6th ed.). New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-304-92483-0. OCLC 456644858. http://books.google.com/books?id=U0KVSgAACAAJ. 
• Eisen, Cliff; et al. "Mozart". Grove Music Online (Subscription required). http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40258pg3. Retrieved 15 September 2010. 
• (German) Haberl, Dieter (2006). "Beethovens erste Reise nach Wien: die Datierung seiner Schülerreise zu W. A. Mozart". Neues Musikwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch (14). OCLC 634798176. 
• Fradkin, Robert A. (1996) The well-tempered announcer: a pronunciation guide to classical music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21064-X.
• Halliwell, Ruth (1998). The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context. New York City: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816371-8. OCLC 36423516. http://books.google.com/books?id=TUMyCTKlAr0C. 
• Heartz, Daniel (2003). Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720–1780 (1st ed.). New York City: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05080-7. OCLC 50693068. http://books.google.com/books?id=Sq7rU0BGyREC. 
• Holmes, Edward (2005). The Life of Mozart. New York: Cosimo Classics. ISBN 1-59605-147-7. OCLC 62790104. http://books.google.com/books?id=V6dBeXZ3GTwC&pg=PA268. 
• Landon, Howard Chandler Robbins (1990). 1791: Mozart's Last Year. London: Flamingo. ISBN 978-0-00-654324-4. OCLC 20932333. http://books.google.com/books?id=oXdNwE0mQ9UC. 
• Lorenz, Michael (9 August 2010). "Mozart's Apartment on the Alsergrund". http://homepage.univie.ac.at/michael.lorenz/alsergrund/. Retrieved 27 September 2010. 
• March, Ivan; Greenfield, Edward; Layton, Robert (2005). Czajkowski, Paul. ed. Penguin Guide to Compact Discs And DVDs, 2005–2006 (30th ed.). London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-102262-0. OCLC 416204627. http://books.google.com/books?id=_H6KQgAACAAJ. 
• Mozart, Wolfgang; Mozart, Leopold (1966). Anderson, Emily. ed. The Letters of Mozart and his Family (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-393-02248-X. OCLC 594813. http://books.google.com/books?id=VMkuAAAAIAAJ. 
• Mozart, Wolfgang (1972). Mersmann, Hans. ed. Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-22859-2. OCLC 753483. http://books.google.com/books?id=KpjYoajWID8C&pg=PR8. 
• "Mozart, Mozart's Magic Flute and Beethoven". Raptus Association for Music Appreciation. http://www.raptusassociation.org/beethmoze.html. Retrieved 27 September 2010. 
• Rosen, Charles (1998). The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (2nd ed.). New York City: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31712-9. OCLC 246977555. http://books.google.com/books?id=aAFUOreO-nMC. 
• Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1998). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music Inc.. ISBN 978-0-333-73432-2. OCLC 39160203. 
• Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1980). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (6th ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-23111-2. OCLC 5676891. 
• Solomon, Maynard (1995). Mozart: A Life (1st ed.). New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019046-0. OCLC 31435799. http://books.google.com/books?id=UuEHAQAAMAAJ. 
• Steptoe, Andrew (1990). The Mozart-Da Ponte Operas: The Cultural and Musical Background to Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-816221-9. OCLC 22895166. http://books.google.com/books?id=s7394NpN0YQC. 
• Till, Nicholas (1995). Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue and Beauty in Mozart's Operas. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31395-6. OCLC 469628809. http://books.google.com/books?id=xCyegHQr2TwC. 
• "Award of the Papal Equestrian Order of the "Golden Spur" to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart". Vatican Secret Archives. 4 July 1770. http://asv.vatican.va/en/doc/1770.htm. Retrieved 27 September 2010. 
• Wakin, Daniel J. (24 August 2010). "After Mozart’s Death, an Endless Coda". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/arts/music/25death.html. 

Other sources

• Cairns, David (2006). Mozart and His Operas. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22898-7. OCLC 62290645. http://books.google.com/books?id=4rNjwC5HShkC. 
• Eisen, Cliff; Keefe, Simon P, eds. (2006). The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85659-0. OCLC 60245611. http://books.google.com/books?id=8o6mVjlSzM4C. 
• Gutman, Robert (2000). Mozart: A Cultural Biography. London: Harcourt Brace. ISBN 978-0-15-601171-6. OCLC 45485135. http://books.google.com/books?id=wKm3sCZeyr8C. 
• "New Mozart Pieces Unveiled (VIDEO)". The Huffington Post. 8 February 2009. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/02/new-mozart-pieces-unveile_n_249532.html. Retrieved 29 September 2010. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

• Mozarthaus Salzburg
• Salzburg Tourist Office – Salzburg City Tourist Board website.
• Chronological-Thematic Catalog
• Works by or about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Digitized, scanned material (books, sheet music)

• "Mozart" Titles; Mozart as author from archive.org
• "Mozart" Titles; Mozart as author from books.google.com
• Digital Mozart Edition (Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum)
• (French) "Mozart" titles from Gallica
• From the British Library
  • Mozart's Thematic Catalogue (view with "Turning the Pages")
  • Mozart's Musical Diary
  • Background information on Mozart and the Thematic Catalogue
• (German) Letters of Leopold Mozart und Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Badische Landesbibliothek)

Sheet music

• Complete sheetmusic (scores) from the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum)
• "Mozart" Titles from the Munich Digitisation Centre (MDZ)
• "Mozart" Titles from the University of Rochester
• Free scores by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free typeset sheet music of Mozart's works from Cantorion.org
• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Mozart as author from archive.org
• Mozart as author from books.google.com

v t e Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Family Leopold Mozart Anna Maria Mozart Maria Anna Mozart (Nannerl) Constanze Mozart Maria Anna Thekla Mozart (Bäsle) Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart Karl Thomas Mozart Johann Georg Mozart Joseph Lange Cäcilia Weber Josepha Weber Aloysia Weber Sophie Weber Georg Nissen Family trees Biography Name Grand tour Smallpox Scatology Italy Berlin Death Biographies Music Köchel catalogue List of compositions Works for solo piano Concert arias, songs, canons Masses Horn concertos Piano concertos Operas Dances Symphonies Sonatas Method and techniques Influences Haydn and Mozart Salieri and Mozart Mozart and Beethoven Mozart and Prague Mozart and Catholicism Mozart and Freemasonry

vep:Mocart Vol'fgang Amadeus

Herbert von Karajan in 1938

Herbert von Karajan (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛɐbɛɐt fɔn ˈkaʁaˌjan]; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years. Although his work was not universally admired, he is generally considered to have been one of the greatest conductors of all time, and he was a dominant figure in European classical music from the 1960s until his death.^[1] Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.^[2]

Biography[link]

Genealogy[link]

The Karajans were of Greek Macedonian^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} or Aromanian^[9] ancestry. His great-great-grandfather, Geòrgios Johannes Karajànnis, was born in Kozani, an Aromanian town in the Ottoman province of Rumelia (present West Macedonia in today's Greece), leaving for Vienna in 1767, and eventually Chemnitz, Saxony.^[10] He and his brother participated in the establishment of Saxony's cloth industry, and both were ennobled for their services by Frederick Augustus III on 1 June 1792, thus the prefix "von" to the family name. The surname Karajànnis became Karajan.^[11] Although traditional biographers ascribed a Serbian or simply a Slavic origin to his mother,^[12] Karajan's family from the maternal side, through his grandfather who was born in the village of Mojstrana, Duchy of Carniola (today in Slovenia), was Slovene.^[11][12][13] By this line, Karajan was related to Austrian composer of Slovene descent Hugo Wolf.^[14] Karajan seems to have known some Slovene.^[11][12]

Early years[link]

Herbert von Karajan's parents, Ernst and Marta (née Kosmač)

Karajan was born in Salzburg, Austria-Hungary, as Heribert Ritter von Karajan.^[15] He was a child prodigy at the piano.^[16] From 1916 to 1926, he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he was encouraged to concentrate on conducting by his teacher, who detected his exceptional promise in that regard.

In 1929, he conducted Salome at the Festspielhaus in Salzburg and from 1929 to 1934 Karajan served as first Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Ulm. In 1933 Karajan made his conducting debut at the Salzburg Festival with the Walpurgisnacht Scene in Max Reinhardt's production of Faust. It was also in 1933 that von Karajan became a member of the Nazi party, a fact for which he would later be criticised.^[1]

In Salzburg in 1934, Karajan led the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time, and from 1934 to 1941, he was engaged to conduct operatic and symphony-orchestra concerts at the Theater Aachen.

Karajan's career was given a significant boost in 1935 when he was appointed Germany's youngest Generalmusikdirektor and performed as a guest conductor in Bucharest, Brussels, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Paris.^[17][18] In 1937 Karajan made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin State Opera, conducting Fidelio. He then enjoyed a major success at the State Opera with Tristan und Isolde. In 1938, his performance there of the opera was hailed by a Berlin critic as Das Wunder Karajan (the Karajan miracle). The critic asserted that Karajan's "success with Wagner's demanding work Tristan und Isolde sets himself alongside Furtwängler and de Sabata, the greatest opera conductors in Germany at the present time".^[19] Receiving a contract with Deutsche Grammophon that same year, Karajan made the first of numerous recordings, conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin in the overture to The Magic Flute. On 26 July 1938, he married operetta singer Elmy Holgerloef. They divorced in 1942.

On 22 October 1942, at the height of the war, Karajan married Anna Maria "Anita" Sauest, born Gütermann. She was the daughter of a well-known manufacturer of yarn for sewing machines. Having had a Jewish grandfather, she was considered a Vierteljüdin (one-quarter Jewish woman). By 1944, Karajan was, according to his own account,^{[citation needed]} losing favor with the Nazi leadership, but he still conducted concerts in wartime Berlin on 18 February 1945. A short time later, in the closing stages of the war, he and Anita fled Germany for Milan, relocating with the assistance of Victor de Sabata.^[20][21] Karajan and Anita divorced in 1958.

Karajan was discharged by the Austrian denazification examining board on 18 March 1946, and resumed his conducting career shortly thereafter.^[22]

Herbert von Karajan conducting in 1941

Postwar years[link]

In 1946, Karajan gave his first post-war concert in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic, but he was banned from further conducting activities by the Soviet occupation authorities because of his Nazi party membership. That summer he participated anonymously in the Salzburg Festival.

On 28 October 1947, Karajan gave his first public concert following the lifting of the conducting ban. With the Vienna Philharmonic and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, he performed Johannes Brahms' A German Requiem for a gramophone production in Vienna.^[23]

In 1949, Karajan became artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna. He also conducted at La Scala in Milan. His most prominent activity at this time was recording with the newly formed Philharmonia Orchestra in London, helping to build them into one of the world's finest. Starting from this year, Karajan began his lifelong attendance at the Lucerne Festival.^[24]

In 1951 and 1952 he conducted at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.

In 1955 he was appointed music director for life of the Berlin Philharmonic as successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler. From 1957 to 1964 he was artistic director of the Vienna State Opera. Karajan was closely involved with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival, where he initiated the Easter Festival, which would remain tied to the Berlin Philharmonic's Music Director after his tenure.

On 22 October 1958 he married his third wife, French model Eliette Mouret; they became parents of two daughters, Isabel and Arabel.

He continued to perform, conduct and record prolifically until his death in Anif^[1] in 1989, mainly with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. In his later years, Karajan suffered from heart and back problems, needing surgery on the latter. He increasingly came into conflict with his orchestra for an all-controlling dictatorial style of conducting that had vanished from use everywhere else. Karajan officially retired from conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, but at his death was conducting a series of rehearsals for the annual Salzburg Music Festival. He died of a heart attack in his home on July 16, 1989 at the age of 81.

A practitioner of Zen Buddhism, Karajan believed strongly in reincarnation and said that he would like to be reborn as an eagle so he could soar over his beloved Alps.^{[citation needed]}

Nazi Party membership[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)

Karajan joined the Nazi Party in Salzburg on 8 April 1933; his membership number was 1,607,525. In June 1933, the Nazi Party was outlawed by the Austrian government. However, Karajan's membership was valid until 1939. In that year the former Austrian members were verified by the general office of the Nazi Party. Karajan's membership was declared invalid but his accession to the party was retroactively determined to have been on 1 May 1933 in Ulm, with membership number: 3,430,914.^[25][26][27]

British musicologist and critic Richard Osborne states: "What are the facts? First, though Karajan was nominated for membership in the as yet unbanned Party in Salzburg in April 1933, he did not collect his card, sign it, or pay his dues, though the registration itself (no. 1607525) got on to the files and crops up in many memoranda and enquiries thereafter. Secondly, he did not join the Party on 1 May 1933 despite prima-facie evidence to the contrary. In the first place, the membership number 3430914 is too high to belong to that date. The highest number issued before the freeze on membership, which lasted from May 1933 to March 1937, was 3262698. However, during the freeze, various functionaries, diplomats, and others were issued cards bearing an NG, or Nachgereichte, designation. These cards were, by convention, backdated to the start of the freeze: 1 May 1933. Karajan's Aachen membership was an NG card, and its number accords with batches issued in 1935, the year Karajan had always identified as the one in which he was asked to join the Party."^[28]

Karajan's prominence increased from 1933 to 1945, which has led to speculation that he joined the Nazi Party solely to advance his music career. Critics such as Jim Svejda^{[citation needed]} have pointed out that other prominent conductors, such as Arturo Toscanini, Otto Klemperer, Erich Kleiber, and Fritz Busch, fled from fascist Europe at the time. However, British music critic Richard Osborne noted that among the many significant conductors who continued to work in Germany throughout the war years—Wilhelm Furtwängler, Ernest Ansermet, Carl Schuricht, Karl Böhm, Hans Knappertsbusch, Clemens Krauss and Karl Elmendorff—Karajan was one of the youngest and thus one of the least advanced in his career.^[29] Karajan was allowed to conduct various orchestras and was free to travel, even to the Netherlands to conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra and make recordings there in 1942.^{[citation needed]}

Musicianship[link]

There is widespread agreement that Karajan had a special gift for extracting beautiful sounds from an orchestra. Opinion varies concerning the greater aesthetic ends to which The Karajan Sound was applied. The American critic Harvey Sachs criticized the Karajan approach as follows:

Karajan seemed to have opted instead for an all-purpose, highly refined, lacquered, calculatedly voluptuous sound that could be applied, with the stylistic modifications he deemed appropriate, to Bach and Puccini, Mozart and Mahler, Beethoven and Wagner, Schumann and Stravinsky ... many of his performances had a prefabricated, artificial quality that those of Toscanini, Furtwängler, and others never had... most of Karajan's records are exaggeratedly polished, a sort of sonic counterpart to the films and photographs of Leni Riefenstahl.^{[citation needed]}

However, it has been argued by commentator Jim Svejda and others that Karajan's pre-1970 manner did not sound as polished as it is later alleged to have become.^[30]