Your Ten Favorite Conductors

[George]

Thanks Jens and jwinter! 

[liuzerus87]

For me, in alphabetical order:

Barbirolli
Fricsay
Furtwangler
Jochum
Mitropoulos
Mravinsky
Szell
Talich
Walter (surprised he doesn't have more votes)
Wand

[mszczuj]

Gaigg
Goodman
Haitink
Harnoncourt
Huss
Jacobs
Kempe
Kubelik
Minkowski
Sawallisch

[madaboutmahler]

I love thinking about these things!!

Mine:

Georg Solti
Simon Rattle
Andris Nelsons
Leonard Bernstein
Esa Pekka Salonen
Daniel Barenboim
Herbert von Karajan
Michael Tilson Thomas
Ivan Fischer
Claudio Abbado

[Lisztianwagner]

Glad to see you're back, Daniel; hope you spent a nice holiday.

[The Raven]

30 votes:

Bernstein   14
Abbado   12
Karajan   11
Kleiber   9
Kubelik   9
Barbirolli   8
Boulez   8
Gardiner   8
Harnoncourt   8
Klemperer   8
Szell   8
Haitink   7
Furtwangler   6
Giulini   6
Minkowski   6
Mravinsky   6
Solti   7
Bohm   5
Fricsay   5
Herreweghe   5
Jacobs   5
Mackerras   5
Sinopoli   5
Walter   5
Wand   5
Chailly   4
Jochum   4
Kempe   4
Ancerl   3
Barenboim   4
Celibidache   3
Dorati   3
Hogwood   3
Reiner   3
Scherchen   3
Bruggen   2
Davis   2
Gergiev   2
Kuijken   2
Maazel   2
Marriner   2
Mitropoulos   2
Monteux   2
Rozhdestvensky   2
Salonen   3
Savall   2
Sawallisch   2
Tennstedt   2
Barshai   1
Beecham   1
Blomstedt   1
Bonynge   1
Boskovsky   1
Boult   1
Busch   1
Bychkov   1
Craft   1
Davies   1
de Burgos   1
Dohnanyi   1
Fennell   1
Fiedler   1
Fischer   2
Gaigg   1
Galliera   1
Gatti   1
Goodman   1
Hickox   1
Huss   1
Jansons   1
Jarvi N   1
Jurowski   1
Kletzki   1
Kondrashin   1
Martinon   1
Mengelberg   1
Mickelthwate   1
Munch   1
Nelsons   2
Norrington   1
Petrenko   1
Pinnock   1
Previn   1
Rattle   2
Reisman   1
Rosbaud   1
Rousset   1
Sanderling   1
Schuricht   1
Slatkin   1
Solomons   1
Stokowski   1
Svetlanov   1
talich   1
Temirkanov   1
Thielemann   1
Tilson-Thomas   2
Toscanini   1
van Beinum   1
Vegh   1
Wit   1
Zinman   1

[George]

Many thanks for your ongoing effort to organize the results, The Raven!

[George]

Stravinsky

Haha! I think you mean Craft.

[George]

Nope .. I mean Stravinsky himself. That big Sony box. Love it.

Didn't Craft prepare the orchestra before each "performance?"

[Lilas Pastia]

I have no idea what is the matter with all these C. Kleiber votes  Some of his records are truly terrible, and most others grossly overrated (runs for cover as clouds gather and lightning bolts rain down  )

My idea of Top Ten anything is not to recognize a memorable recording, but to recognize an artist I'd hear in just about anything.

In diesen Heil'gen Hallen  belong the following (in no particular order):

Böhm
Walter
Klemperer
Szell
Munch
Jochum
Ansermet
Kubelik 
Haitink
Monteux


I don't care one bit that practically all of them have long passed their expiry date. I'd sooner listen to them in anything than more recent conductors who have no real musical culture and precious little personality.

I also revere some conductors for something I'll judge all others by:

Stokowski in Sibelius 1
Fricsay in Hary Janos
Barbirolli in Mahler 6
Leitner in Bruckner 6 and 9
Serafin in La Forza del destino
Furtwängler in Bruckner 8
Toscanini in The Verdi Requiem
Sinopoli in Schubert 9
Bernstein in Shostakovich 5
Kondrashin in Schéhérazade and Shostakovich 8
Rozhdestvensky in Sibelius 3 and 5
Markevitch in Schubert 3 and 4 or Le Sacre du printemps

The list could go on...  My thought here is to recognise greatness in a broad range of répertoire as opposed to the occasional triumph with a particular work or composer.

[George]

I don't care one bit that practically all of them have long passed their expiry date. I'd sooner listen to them in anything than more recent conductors who have no real musical culture and precious little personality.

Amen!

[Peregrine]

Beecham

Furtwangler

Mravinsky

Karajan

Toscanini

Szell

Wand

Harnoncourt

Giulini

Kondrashin

[jlaurson]

...I'd sooner listen to them in anything than more recent conductors who have no real musical culture and precious little personality.
...

Oy. I'd be tempted to say that you need to get out more, but that would be unnecessarily antagonistic.

Suffice it to say that the statistical likelihood of more great conductors having lived at any other period (say, a span of 10, 15 years) than are active now, is very, very low.

Also goes to show what a difference it makes to have one's musical diet consist only of recordings vs. live performances. Then again, that's easy for me to say, being pampered (albeit not nearly as much as last year) with some very fine performances in Salzburg just now.

[The Raven]

after 32 votes, james not included...

Bernstein   14
Abbado   12
Karajan   12
Kubelik   10
Szell   10
Harnoncourt   9
Kleiber   9
Klemperer   9
Barbirolli   8
Boulez   8
Gardiner   8
Haitink   8
Furtwangler   7
Giulini   7
Mravinsky   7
Solti   7
Bohm   6
Minkowski   6
Walter   6
Wand   6
Fricsay   5
Herreweghe   5
Jacobs   5
Jochum   5
Mackerras   5
Sinopoli   5

[The Raven]

I have no idea what is the matter with all these C. Kleiber votes  Some of his records are truly terrible, and most others grossly overrated (runs for cover as clouds gather and lightning bolts rain down  )

I don't care one bit that practically all of them have long passed their expiry date. I'd sooner listen to them in anything than more recent conductors who have no real musical culture and precious little personality.

Either you write this kind of stuff to get attention or you must be really lost in too much information coming in in this telecommunication age and you defend yourself...

[The Raven]

Many thanks for your ongoing effort to organize the results, The Raven!

no problem. it's quite easy...despite the people

[springrite]

after 32 votes, james not included...

As in most polls, including James' vote wouldn't have much if any influence on the overall picture. Well, maybe Boulez. You just have a little more work adding some names with the number "1" at the end of it. 

Personally, I don't mind Knussen and Eotvos with a vote or two.

[mahler10th]

I have no idea what is the matter with all these C. Kleiber votes  Some of his records are truly terrible, and most others grossly overrated (runs for cover as clouds gather and lightning bolts rain down  )
My idea of Top Ten anything is not to recognize a memorable recording, but to recognize an artist I'd hear in just about anything.

No conductor is perfect, but what among the official releases by C. Kleiber is truly terrible?  His little ouvre of conducted works inidcates a man interested only in the music, not in what composers 'meant' or what he 'should do' with any work.  Measuring the pinnacle of greatness in conducting is not an easy business with so many, but no conductor has produced so little to such wide accalim, and one has to listen to his output question why this is so.  It cannot be because he was 'over-rated', because there is so little an output to rate him on.  I think it would be hard to find anyone (other than yourself, Andre!    ) who would opt to call much or any of his output as 'truly terrible'.

Meanwhile I am unhappy that Bernstein is currently topping the charts here, but it's great to see Andris Nelsons getting a second vote!   

[George]

The overall picture is a lopsided & dated one. So it's always nice to add/mention just a few top musicians who are more current & up to date into the mix.

So add 5 more and your votes will be counted.

[springrite]

So add 5 more and your votes will be counted.

May we consider Maderna, Gielen... well, I can't come up the three more that James might like...