Best 20th century conductor?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by monolith94
Ozawa- he's a popular guy up Boston-way!
I always admired his hair too.

He is the only one of these conductors whom I have seen live in concert. He's too flashy--distracts from the music. But otherwise a fine conductor.

[monkspider]

Thanks for the cool pics Bory.

[Boris Godunov]

Who do you think looks more frightening? Bohm or Reiner? I'd say Reiner--he looks kinda evil.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Some might take issue with his wholesale rewriting of pieces of music to suit his fancy.

I do, but that doesn't stop me liking his Mahler 2, Shostakovich 5 and Firebird Suite to name a few.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Agathon


I do, but that doesn't stop me liking his Mahler 2, Shostakovich 5 and Firebird Suite to name a few.

See, I don't. While there is something to be said for faithfulness to the score, I prefer the conductor taking a piece and making it his own statement. I suppose that's why I prefer Furtwangler.

[Ned]

Gustav Mahler

[Boris Godunov]

It's odd that, historically, most of the great composers have not been the best of conductors. Stravinsky was notoriously bad at conducting his own music. Beethoven, naturally, couldn't conduct once his deafness began to set in. Brahms allowed the tympanist to run roughshod over the first performance of "Ein Deutsches Requiem," resulting in some boos and hisses from the audience.

At the same time, many of the great conductors were unsuccessful as composers. Furtwangler wrote a few pieces of symphonic music during is exile in Switzerland, but nothing spectacular. Andre Previn's works have also been relatively uninspiring. Of this century's great composer/conductors, only Mahler and Bernstein really stand out.

[Ned]

I was reading a little on the issue of why no-one recorded Mahler. Some think that he was too "controversial" and the conservative element was hostile to him.

[Boris Godunov]

Well, being a Jew in 19th-century and early 20th-century Europe wasn't fashionable, no. Much of his music very much relies on Yiddish traditional music, and his symphonies make an interesting amalgam of staunch German idioms and Jewish folk music. It also expresses a great deal of the angst he felt at being a Jew in a Christian world that in many ways despised him.

[Provost Harrison]

Leonard Bernstein because the others are a mystery to me

[Boris Godunov]

You've never heard of Toscanini?

[gunkulator]

Leopold Stokowski, obviously. Because Bugs Bunny doesn't go around imitating just anyone ya know.

[Boris Godunov]

DL!



(the above was danced to the Sabre Dance by Kachachturian)

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
You've never heard of Toscanini?

The name sounds kind of familiar, but not very...

[Stefu]

ESA-PEKKA!