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Commanding the podium with his slender figure, theatrical shock of hair 
and penetrating blue eyes, Herbert von Karajan projected the hieratic image 
of the conductor as officiant of some quasi-mystic rite.  And anyone whoever 
saw him conduct live or on his many audiovisual recordings will agree that in
his performances, music did indeed become a religion and Karajan its high-priest. 

Born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1908, he became the city's most famous son after 
Mozart. Raised in a cultivated musical environment, he studied at the Mozarteum 
in Salzburg before entering the Vienna Music Academy.  He made his conducting 
debut in 1928 and became chief conductor in Ulm, Germany, before moving on to 
the larger city of Aachen in 1935, where he was appointed Germany's youngest
general music director. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1937 and 
at the Berlin State Opera in 1938. In 1955 he was appointed music director for 
life of the Berlin Philharmonic, which he honed into arguably the best orchestra 
in the world. Simultaneously at the helm of the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg 
Festival and the Berlin Philharmonic for a time, and closely connected to
the Vienna Symphony, London's Philharmonia Orchestra (which had been created 
especially for him) and Milan's La Scala, Karajan became known as the "General 
Music Director of Europe" from the 1950s to the 1970s.  He towered over European 
musical life as no one had done before.  Herbert von Karajan died in Salzburg 
on July 16, 1989. 

Karajan embodied classical music in the general consciousness as an epoch-making 
conductor, media star, opera producer, festival director and festival founder. 
But in spite of his Promethean and widely varied activities, he remained a superb 
conductor, with a grasp of the standard orchestral and operatic repertory from 
Mozart to Schönberg that was unsurpassed among his peers. 

If Karajan continues to be such a looming presence in the classical music world 
today, then it is not only because of his more than 800 records and CDs, but also 
because of the many hours of video recordings which he produced over the course 
of many years - many of them with Unitel. Nothing less than a visionary in this 
domain, he began preserving his performances on film back in 1965, when he
produced his first opera film, La Bohème, with Franco Zeffirelli. It marked the 
beginning of a long-term association with Unitel, which gave rise to a total of 
48 hours of music on film, ranging from operas to cycles of symphonies and
to a variety of orchestral works. 

Conscious of Karajan's extraordinary significance, Unitel insisted on preserving 
the maestro's performances with the help of the highest technological standards 
available. Unitel thus used 35mm film, filmed in color at a time when few television 
sets were equipped for it, and recorded in stereo before stereo broadcasting was 
introduced! Karajan sought out innovative directors such as Franco Zeffirelli, 
Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Hugo Niebeling, whose provocative "translation" of 
Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony has achieved considerable renown. 

No less important to Karajan was the quality of the performers he chose to transmit 
his musical legacy to coming generations. Unitel's Karajan recordings feature almost 
exclusively the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and Milan's La Scala Orchestra. 
Among the soloists are the leading performers of our time such as Mirella Freni, 
Luciano Pavarotti, Leontyne Price, Nikolai Ghiaurov, Peter Schreier, Yehudi Menuhin,
Alexis Weissenberg... 

Among the highlights are Verdi's Requiem with Price, Pavarotti, Ghiaurov and Cossotto; 
the four complete cycles of Beethoven's nine symphonies along with the Missa Solemnis 
and a Ninth live from the Berlin Philharmonic with Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Agnes Baltsa, René
Kollo and José van Dam; all four Brahms symphonies and the German Requiem with 
Gundula Janowitz and José van Dam; Bruckner's Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 and Tchaikovsky's
Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 and 6. His opera productions include Carmen (with Grace Bumbry), 
La Bohème (with Mirella Freni and Placido Domingo), Otello (with Freni and Jon Vickers), 
Das Rheingold (with Jeannine Altmeyer, Brigitte Fassbaender and Peter Schreier), 
and Madama Butterfly (in the Ponnelle production with Freni, Domingo and Christa Ludwig). 
In addition, there are rehearsals of music by Beethoven, Dvorak and Mozart showing the 
maestro at work; and a 60-minute portrait of the conductor at 70. 

Karajan's recordings not only capture one-of-a-kind musical events, but also document one 
of the 20th century's most pre-eminent conductors.  May he live on in memory forever, 
the greatest of conductors, his legacy the greatest of orchestras.