Herbert von Karajan is one of the century's most admired and widely discussed musicians. In these conversations, completed only weeks before Karajan's death in July 1989, Richard Osborne focuses on Karajan the musician to reveal a man very different from the jet-setting tycoon of popular legend. Karajan emerges in the course of this book as a direct, sympathetic, often amusing man, with an abiding passion for music and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the European musical scene going back over 60 years. Vivid memories of distinguished musicians of the past sit alongside Karajan's reflections on the craft of conducting and his preoccupation with how best to present music on film, which he saw as the great popular medium of the 21st century.