Conductor Herbert von Karajan, the brilliant and revered maestro who stirred millions with his music and inflamed passions with his stormy life, is dead at age 81.
He was perhaps the world's most honored, prolific and well-known conductor.Karajan, who resigned as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic on April 24 after 34 years, died Sunday at his home in Anif near Salzburg, said Albert Moser, the president of the Salzburg Festival.
Austrian television said the cause of death was heart failure, but festival organizers could not confirm it.
The conductor's membership in the Nazi Party during World War II and his volatile temper made him a figure of controversy throughout his life.
But fellow musicians adored his artistry - and his more than 800 recordings sold 150 million copies, the most by any conductor.
Karajan resigned from the Berlin Philharmonic during a dispute over his contract but cited health reasons for his decision. He had long been ill, and severe back pain made it difficult for him to walk unaided to the podium.
Despite his illness, Karajan had regularly attended rehearsals for the festival, Austria's largest cultural event, and was to have conducted the opening opera on July 27, Moser said.
A black flag hung from the festival building on Sunday, and Austrian television said celebrations that were to follow the premier had been canceled.
American conductor Erich Leinsdorf, referring to Karajan's resignation, said: "I think he must have died from the frustration of his recent experiences. He died a psychological death."
Karajan himself once said: "When I can no longer make music, then I no longer want to be."
His sometimes stormy "marriage for life" with the Berlin Philharmonic was one of the most highly publicized, deeply analyzed and perhaps least understood relationships in the music world.
Salzburg's most famous son after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Karajan was described by friends as a shy, introverted, somewhat solitary man. Detractors called him arrogant and greedy.
Karajan's membership in the Nazi Party in World War II caused him to be banned from performing for two years and forever boycotted by some Jewish musicians.
Violent demonstrations marred his first U.S. tour with the Berlin Philharmonic in the 1954-55 season.
But nobody disputed his genius. Karajan, a 40-year devotee of yoga and Zen Buddhism, often conducted with his piercing blue eyes closed, insisting it helped him establish a psychic bond with the orchestra.
"I am much more with the musicians if I have my eyes shut," Karajan was quoted as saying in Helena Matheopoulos' 1981 book, "Maestro."