As Eric Schulz’s new documentary about Herbert von Karajan is drawing to a close, a bombshell. ‘I believe we have more than one life. And I’ll be back, I can tell you that!’ proclaims a visibly ailing Karajan. What are we supposed to make of this revelation? Has the famously messianic maestro finally succumbed to the trap of believing in his own charisma? Luckily a talking head appears on screen to reassure us that, well, Herbert often said this kind of thing and we ought not to read too much into it. I’m not so sure though. Could the next principal conductor of the BPO, post-Rattle, indeed be Karajan, death but a minor inconvenience that mustn’t be allowed to stall his career?

Schulz is clearly in love with what the Karajan mythology can hand him as a film-maker while realising that the wackier fringes of HvK lionisation need, if not exactly to be challenged, then at least acknowledged. Various former BPO musicians are wheeled out to testify that Karajan could indeed be unreasonable and obstinate. But that’s where it ends. No questions asked about who he may, or may not, have hung out with during the war; the chaos when Karajan fell out with the orchestra during his last years similarly airbrushed away.

The Second Life refers, naturally, to Karajan’s recorded legacy and this is where things hot up. A DG insider raises an intriguing point: Karajan’s insistence on micromanaging every detail, on perfection, he says, was aimed at imbuing his recordings with timelessness. This is subsequently contradicted, not least by Karajan himself who, during a rather testy interview, says he has changed ‘but records stay the same’ and that’s a problem. How far conductors should manipulate studio space to create idealised performances not possible in a live concert is a morally troubling issue. But there’s no ambiguity about Karajan’s view.

Karajan buffs will appreciate copious unseen footage; a pity though about the continuity hiccups. When the film arrives at his totemic 1982 Mahler Ninth we see Karajan conducting Mahler’s Fifth; discussion of his approach to Schoenberg is overlaid with footage of The Rite of Spring. Bring on the second coming.