MUSIC

Conductor Herbert von Karajan, the guiding spirit of Austria’s Salzburg Music Festival for more than 25 years, has threatened to quit if its conservative artistic orientation is updated. Karajan is under fire from critics who say he wields too much control over a cultural event they complain is badly in need of renewal. Run by a four-member board dominated by Karajan, the festival steadfastly adheres to its original conception in 1920 as a showplace for the works of Mozart and Richard Strauss. However, fears that the state-subsidized festival is heading into decline have spurred proposals that the festival present a wider range of contemporary music and theater. Karajan, 81, resigned from the festival board last August after an illness, but he retains a veto over virtually all of its productions.