This year Herbert von Karajan would have celebrated his 100th birthday. He was born on 5th April, 1908, in the city of Salzburg. To commemorate this great Austrian conductor the Austrian Mint in Vienna is issuing a 5 Euro silver coin on 7th May, 2008.

On the occasion of his death in 1989 the New York Times characterised Karajan as “probably the world’s best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music.”

As a child he already showed great talent on the piano. He studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum and later at the university and academies in Vienna. His first public performance (as a “trail-conductor”) was in 1929 with the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. In 1930 he became the conductor and musical director at the City Theatre in Ulm.

During the war Karajan’s membership in the Nazi Party protected his career and his part-Jewish wife, but it proved a hindrance after 1945, despite his acquittal by the Austrian denazification examining board. Nevertheless, he conducted in Milan and in London as well as at the Lucerne Festival. In 1955 he was appointed the music director of the Berlin Philharmonic for life. In Vienna he conducted the world famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Vienna Opera, as well as at the Salzburg Festival, where he also established Easter Festival.

Karajan was recognised worldwide as a masterly conductor. Although he conducted (and recorded) all the great composers, he was especially associated with the performance of the works of Beethoven, all of which he put on record. In 1972 The Council of Europe commissioned him to arrange Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from the Ninth Symphony as the European anthem. Karajan was also instrumental in the development of the compact disk, lending his prestige and endorsement to the recording and sale of CDs. (more…)

The Abbey of Klosterneuburg

When one travels down the Danube, whether by river or by land, just before reaching Vienna one encounters the town of Klosterneuburg nestling around the ancient abbey on the heights overlooking the Danube Valley. Since the year 1114 canons regular have been living here according to the Rule of St. Augustine. This abbey is the fifth coin in the Austrian Mint’s silver series “Great Abbeys of Austria” and will be issued on 16th April, 2008.

The Augustinian abbey of Klosterneuburg was founded in 1114 by Margrave Leopold III (who was subsequently canonised and ranks as the patron saint of Austria). The famous legend is that Leopold’s wife, Agnes, lost a precious scarf in the wind which Leopold himself found some years later while hunting. A vision of the Virgin Mary is supposed to have instructed him to found an abbey on that spot. The legend is, of course, romance, although the scarf does still exist in actual fact. St. Leopold is buried in the crypt of the church under the winged altar known as the Verduner Altar, consisting of some 45 gilded and enamelled panels with scenes from the Bible and dating from the end of the 12th century.

The abbey almost died out in the time of the Reformation, but was restored and invigorated by Provost Caspar Christiani (1578-1584). In 1683 Turkish troops besieging Vienna also attacked Klosterneuburg, but Provost William Lebsaft together with the canons and townspeople managed to repulse them without outside assistance.
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The Austrian Mint has just released the 6th coin in its bi-metallic Silver /Niobium series. The 2008 installment is titled “Fascination Light” in tribute to the 150 anniversary of the birth of the great Austrian chemist and entrepreneur, Dr. Carl Baron Auer von Welsbach (1858-1929).

The use of Niobium makes this coin both unusual and colorful. Niobium is a shiny gray, ductile metal that takes on a bluish tinge when exposed to air at room temperature for extended periods. It can also be “Heat Treated” and oxidized to create a number of different colors as is evidenced on the other five preceding coins in this bimetallic series.

The new € 25 obverse depicts a scene from the late 19th century when Welsbach’s inventions were quite new. The design features a nostalgic gas lamp lighter perched on a ladder, at dusk, in front of the Vienna City Hall, and lighting one of the gas lanterns. This was an everyday occurrence around 1800. This side of the coin also bears the country of issue, “Republik Oesterreich”, Republic of Austria, the face value of 25 euros and the year of issue, 2008.

In the center of reverse of the coin on the niobium core, is depicted a stylised sun, the ultimate source of light. Radiating out from the sun, into the silver ring and starting in the left side of the design field is a three quarter portrait of Carl Auer von Welsbach. (more…)