Herbert von Karajan (Salzburg April 5, 1908 Anif near Salzburg – July 16, 1989) was an Austrian conductor. His New York Times obituary called him “probably the world’s best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music,” and placed him “in the topmost ranks of 20th-century conductors.” Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for thirty-five years. Herbert von Karajan was the son of an upper-bourgeois Salzburg family of Greek ancestry. Read more on Last.fm