Karajan and the Philharmonia

[Maclintick]

Robert Meyer was obviously there but his other recollections cannot be accurate. The concert must have taken place before 1957 as Dennis Brain is mentioned and HVK continued making recordings with the Philharmonia until 1960 though he did join the BPO in 1957 as I recall and made for example the Dvorak 9 recording referred to above.

It seems the tour in question started in Nov 1955. Robert Meyer posted a more detailed reminiscence here:

https://robertmeyer.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/last-tour-with-von-karajan/

[HighlandDougie]

Robert Meyer was obviously there but his other recollections cannot be accurate. The concert must have taken place before 1957 as Dennis Brain is mentioned and HVK continued making recordings with the Philharmonia until 1960 though he did join the BPO in 1957 as I recall and made for example the Dvorak 9 recording referred to above.

Richard Osborne (in his biography of HvK) devotes several pages to the 1955 tour and, pace Robert Meyer, is quite specific about , "the final concert ... in Boston. During the morning of 19 November there was a brief seating rehearsal in Symphony Hall. Quite a few of the Boston Symphony players were there, waiting to take their opposite numbers out to lunch. So was Charles Munch, a man much admired by Karajan.

To help the orchestra acclimatise, Karajan suggested they play a few bars. Between his making the suggestion and the music starting, the supernumerary second violinist Peter Gibbs stood up and confronted Karajan ....".

So, I guess that Robert Meyer's memory may have been playing tricks with American cities beginning with a "B". Petrushka or Barbs may be able to add a gloss to this.

[Petrushka]

It seems the tour in question started in Nov 1955. Robert Meyer posted a more detailed reminiscence here:

https://robertmeyer.wordpress.com/20...h-von-karajan/

Thanks for that. However, there are one or two errors in Meyer's piece that need sorting out. The Philharmonia's USA tour ended on November 19 1955 not in Baltimore but Boston. The Baltimore concert took place on November 14. Richard Osborne's biography confirms the Boston venue for the Gibbs incident. Also, calling Karajan a 'rabid Nazi' is utter tosh. The piece gives the impression that Karajan terminated his relationship with the orchestra after this incident but it was to be another five years before he did.

By the way, the programme for that final Boston concert is a good one: Mozart Divertimento K287, Sibelius Symphony No 5 and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

[Barbirollians]

Thanks for that. However, there are one or two errors in Meyer's piece that need sorting out. The Philharmonia's USA tour ended on November 19 1955 not in Baltimore but Boston. The Baltimore concert took place on November 14. Richard Osborne's biography confirms the Boston venue for the Gibbs incident. Also, calling Karajan a 'rabid Nazi' is utter tosh. The piece gives the impression that Karajan terminated his relationship with the orchestra after this incident but it was to be another five years before he did.

By the way, the programme for that final Boston concert is a good one: Mozart Divertimento K287, Sibelius Symphony No 5 and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Mr Meyer appears to have been in his late 80s when he wrote this so maybe his memory was playing tricks. Also in one piece he describes HVK as a “ rabid Nazi “ in the other that he accepted he joined the Nazi party for business reasons .

[Maclintick]

Mr Meyer appears to have been in his late 80s when he wrote this so maybe his memory was playing tricks. Also in one piece he describes HVK as a “ rabid Nazi “ in the other that he accepted he joined the Nazi party for business reasons .

If Richard Osborne's HvK biography is regarded as definitive, then Robert Meyer obviously got the location of the Gibbs incident wrong in his memoir. One telling detail in Meyer's recollection is that Gibbs was supported in his refusal to back down by Dennis Brain & Gareth Morris. All three served in the RAF during WWII, & played in its wartime symphony orchestra, so their solidarity in confronting a former Nazi conductor is highly probable -- this only 10 years after the war had ended. HvK, faced in this scenario with losing his principal horn and principal flute, relented in his demand for Gibbs' dismissal, though not without a considerable hoo-haa backstage, it seems. I've no idea whether HvK deserves the label of "rabid Nazi" or not.