Steven Schwartz ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Paul Moor, late of this list, had gone into the subject extensively and
>found documentary evidence - membership records - that Karajan joined the
>Nazi party not once, but twice!  Now, whether he actually believed in
>Naziism or whether he joined as a cynical career move (it's hard to tell
>which is worse) is still open to question.

Although I seem to recall reading somewhere recently that his original Time
article revealing this (1950s?) was based on a misreading of some dates.
Damn, wish I could recall where I saw this.

There is no doubt that he did join once though.

Mitch Friedfeld ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>I can't produce his party card.  I believe that Norman Lebrecht in one of
>his books contends that Karajan joined the party twice.  And he underwent
>de-Nazification after the war, didn't he? That's pretty good proof for
>me....

Sorry Mitch, but undergoing de-Nazification doesn't prove anything except
that the person in question was a) important enough to bother with b) not
important in the military or political sense and c) remained safely in
Germany during (most of) the Third Reich.

Furtwaengler was also de-Nazified (took longer than Karajan IIRC) and
there is absolutely no question of his ever having joined the party.

I'm reminded of a brief exchange in the British tv show Minder from the
1980s; a small-time thug is trying to impress:  "I've got a not guilty
for murder you know" "Yes, probably because you didn't do it".

Lewis Liu ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>I recommend Beethoven's Symphony # 3 and 9 from the EMI set.  Especially
>the 9, if you have listened to Celi's performance, you will not listen to
>others interpretation.

Sorry, I haven't heard these (although I have other 'Celi Beethoven and
wasn't overwhelmed) but *nobody* is that good.

Deryk Barker
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