Carlos Kleiber

[mahler10th]

 
Since watching a documentary about Carlos Kleiber a few days ago, I have been digging up stuff conducted by him to listen to...
There is one thing he brings to me that I haven't experienced before.  And it is a wonderous thing.  A good example is the Coriolan Overture, which generally starts with some almighty bangs followed by big and typically Beethovian music.  But unlike the maestros who really do start with a bang in this (Bernstein, Karajan, for example), Kleiber pulls the music out from free air as if it were already there.  No shocks.  No fancy effects.  It doesn't matter what the music is, he plays it like it's always been around you.  You are not surprised to hear his openings, they kind of 'arrive' at you like they were there and with you all the time, all of your life, and the rest of the music plays in the same way, then it finishes!  One is left thinking "Hey, I just hear some brilliant music there, how did that happen?" 
So, my experience with Kleiber is unique.  Even if I heard him play a piece of music I've never heard before (which unfortunately I haven't), it would probably strike me as instantly familiar, like it was something which I've carried around all my life.  It is very strange and hard to explain.  His Beethoven 4 too just kind of 'appears' to my ears, and as it plays there is nothing to 'listen for' because it's all there like it always has been.  Thus I find no effort whatsoever to listen to his output, because a transcendent effect seems to have been built in to his style.  I would be at a loss to describe, for example, his use of staccato in a piece in comparison to another conductor, for the simple reason that...well...it is naturally there, its effect is in the music and not what the conductor is doing with it.  I guess I have found a conductor who makes the music a natural part of me, nothing is expected even if it is or isn't unexpected...er...so difficult to explain!
So it is not because he is a big conductor, a loud conductor, a dramatic conductor, an intense conductor, a fast conductor, a slow conductor, a colourful conductor or any other conductor.  In a most zen like way it is because he and his output have nothing whatsoever to say for themselves other than 'Hello, I've been with you since you first ever realised you could HEAR."  For once it is like you can completely ignore who is conducting and who is playing, and have the music with you as it plays and let it go when it doesn't.
The words 'brilliance' and 'genius' don't even come close.  The word 'music' on its own, does though!
Viva Kleiber!   0:)

[springrite]

Well put! I think it is especially true with the Beethoven 4.