Top 10 conductors that YOU like the most

Started by rmihai, December 08, 2019, 05:22:29 AM

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rmihai

Hello,

What are your TOP 10 conductors that you like the most?

(no Mahler, etc - I am strictly talking about the ones that we can hear on recordings).

You can rank them, or you can just name them with no ranking.

This is a poll not about what are the most famous ones and not about the ones widely recognized.
I repeat - this is a poll about the ones YOU like the most.

So it is not about arguing - each individual preferences are to be respected (eg I might like coconut, you might not ....)

You can name less than 10, as you can name more than 10. Decision is yours.

Mine are

1. Wilhelm FURTWÄNGLER
2. George SZELL
3. Eugene ORMANDY
4 -8 Rafael KUBELÍK
4- 8 Bernard HAITINK
4 -8 Otto KLEMPERER
4 -8 Bruno WALTER
4 -8 Yevgeny MRAVINSKY
9 -11 Neville MARRINER
9-11 Nikolaus HARNONCOURT
9-11 Carlos KLEIBER

At the end I will scientifically organize and data and I ill let you know the results.




Biffo

As always in these lists there is someone I have forgotten

1. Sir John Barbirolli
2. Rafael Kubelik
3. Rudolf Kempe
4. Jean Martinon
5. Colin Davis
6. Bernard Haitink
7. Charles Mackerras
8. Richard Hickox
9. John Eliot Gardiner
10. Nikolaus Harnoncourt

These are special favourites but Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Georg Solti and George Szell probably make up the backbone of my collection, mainly for historical reasons, and I wouldn't want to be without them.

I could probably swap Herreweghe for Harnoncourt.... but other possibilities are numerous

Todd

For December 2019:

Carl Schuricht
Carlo Maria Giulini
Clemens Krauss
Esa Pekka Salonen
Herbert von Karajan
Manfred Honeck
Paul McCreesh
Pierre Montuex
Rafael Kubelik
Thomas Hengelbrock
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Symphonic Addict

#3
Karajan
Haitink
Rozhdestvensky
Bernstein
B. Thomson
N. Järvi
Mehta
Gergiev
C. Davis
Marriner
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

j winter

Today's list.  Compiling it, it really drove home just how old-fashioned my taste is in these things... I think Norrington's the only one that hasn't been dead for at least 30 years...


George Szell
Bruno Walter
Wilhelm Furtwangler
Karl Bohm
Leopold Stokowski
Roger Norrington
Leonard Bernstein
John Barbirolli
Otto Klemperer
Eugen Jochum
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

ritter

In alphabetical order:

Claudio Abbado
Karl Böhm
Pierre Boulez
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Clemens Krauss
Bruno Maderna
Kent Nagano
Hermann Scherchen
Giuseppe Sinopoli
George Szell

Biffo

Quote from: j winter on December 08, 2019, 07:18:26 AM
Today's list.  Compiling it, it really drove home just how old-fashioned my taste is in these things... I think Norrington's the only one that hasn't been dead for at least 30 years...


George Szell
Bruno Walter
Wilhelm Furtwangler
Karl Bohm
Leopold Stokowski
Roger Norrington
Leonard Bernstein
John Barbirolli
Otto Klemperer
Eugen Jochum

You had me thinking there but Jochum died in 1987. Another conductor who could have made it into my list.

San Antone

About half of these are vocal ensemble or early music group directors, hope that counts.

Gardiner
Herreweghe
Parrott
McCreesh
Butt
Harnoncourt (early)
Jordi Savall
Phillip Ledger
Bruno Turner
Peter Phillips
Paul Hillier

Todd

Quote from: San Antone on December 08, 2019, 07:29:24 AM
Jordi Savall


See, I knew I'd forget one.  I'll just say that Savall transcends mere conducting since he's such a fine instrumentalist, too.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Ken B

Quote from: San Antone on December 08, 2019, 07:29:24 AM
About half of these are vocal ensemble or early music group directors, hope that counts.

Gardiner
Herreweghe
Parrott
McCreesh
Butt
Harnoncourt (early)
Jordi Savall
Phillip Ledger
Bruno Turner
Peter Phillips
Paul Hillier

Yay for Bruno Turner! Do you know his biography? A wonderful man.

http://kenblogic.blogspot.com/2017/11/?m=0

San Antone

#10
Quote from: Ken B on December 08, 2019, 07:38:56 AM
Yay for Bruno Turner! Do you know his biography? A wonderful man.

http://kenblogic.blogspot.com/2017/11/?m=0

I'll have to check that out - I only know him through the recordings by Pro Cantione Antiqua, which are some of my favorite Palestrina records.  I'm not sure who came first Turner or Mark Brown, but under either conductor the group was excellent, IMO.

Quote from: Todd on December 08, 2019, 07:37:15 AM

See, I knew I'd forget one.  I'll just say that Savall transcends mere conducting since he's such a fine instrumentalist, too.

He is; but there are other conductors whose career spanned dual specialties - Pletnev, Hogwood (keyboard); Boulez, Bernstein (composers); Manze (violin); many others.

Biffo

Quote from: Todd on December 08, 2019, 07:37:15 AM

See, I knew I'd forget one.  I'll just say that Savall transcends mere conducting since he's such a fine instrumentalist, too.

Yes, Savall is another for me as well.

Ken B

#12
Only the first choice is clear
Guido Cantelli

Other names that come to mind
Klemperer
Szell
Karajan
Hogwood
Boulez
I think those are certainly in my top 10. Other candidates:
Abbado
Jochum
Skrowaczewski
Böhm
Silvestri

I don't know where to put some of the great names mentioned who rarely conduct orchestras, like Bruno Turner, or Savall. Andrew Carwood is top of that list though. Suzuki. Pinnock.
A different list tomorrow.

amw

I can't really properly evaluate conductors because I'm not an orchestral/choral/ensemble musician and have never worked with one as a performer. Recordings are obviously studio products (most of the time) and their quality may have more to do with the orchestra/ensemble, the assistant conductors who prepared it, etc than the person at the podium. In particular with orchestras like the Berlin Phil or Bavarian Radio Symphony that can essentially play themselves one often gets the feeling the choice of conductor is irrelevant.

There are a few conductors I've been impressed with in every live recording I've heard, although without hearing their entire discographies I have no idea if this is just because they happened to have good players and good conditions for the specific recordings I heard.

This includes
Hans Rosbaud
Hans Zender
Sylvain Cambreling
Rafael Kubelík
Eugene Ormandy
Susanna Mälkki
Arturo Tamayo
Herbert Blomstedt
Bruno Maderna
Kirill Kondrashin
Marc Minkowski

Also Roger Norrington and John Eliot Gardiner have been consistently good live but a lot of their studio recordings.... not so good. I have no idea why.

rmihai

Quote from: San Antone on December 08, 2019, 07:29:24 AM
About half of these are vocal ensemble or early music group directors, hope that counts.

Gardiner
Herreweghe
Parrott
McCreesh
Butt
Harnoncourt (early)
Jordi Savall
Phillip Ledger
Bruno Turner
Peter Phillips
Paul Hillier

Absolutely YES

PS I forgot Jordi Savall in mine !

André

#15
Böhm
Giulini
Haitink
Karajan
Klemperer
Monteux
Munch
Ormandy
Schuricht
Stokowski


Barbirolli, Boult, Rohdestvensky, Schuricht, Suitner, Szell, Toscanini and Walter follow...

Marc

Quote from: j winter on December 08, 2019, 07:18:26 AM
Today's list.  Compiling it, it really drove home just how old-fashioned my taste is in these things... I think Norrington's the only one that hasn't been dead for at least 30 years...


George Szell
Bruno Walter
Wilhelm Furtwangler
Karl Bohm
Leopold Stokowski
Roger Norrington
Leonard Bernstein
John Barbirolli
Otto Klemperer
Eugen Jochum

If I just skip the HIP-conductors that I like, I can very well live with your list. Probably with the exception of Szell, who mostly leaves me cold.
With me, it's not always a matter whether I like (most) of their recordings/interpretations though. Some of them are just awesome to watch in action. I mean, conductors like Walter, Furtwängler, Bernstein, Barbirolli and Klemperer (of your list) are entirely unique.

Here's a lovely 1 hour video of Bruno Walter conducting the Vancouver Festival Orchestra in rehearsal, combined with an interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaCoJbcRP2s

And Furtwängler rehearsing a part of Brahms 4, in post-war London (look at his annoyed, typical Furtwängler gestures at 0:02: SEIEN SIE DOCH STILL!!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYbb5KZYDg

A 'secret' favourite of mine is Dutch conductor Eduard van Beinum. But there are just a few clips of him in action. Here's a Concertgebouw performance of Beethoven's Eroica (May 5th, 1957):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgHzoI5TzeM

The tragedy of this clip is that we can see Van Beinum, almost secretly, has to take pills to be able to even continue (16:05 and 32:50). He suffered from a severe heart condition and was mostly completely spent after a concert. Problem was: despite doctor's advice, the man just would not stop or take a rest, he loved his job too much. Van Beinum died during a rehearsal in 1959, at the age of 58.

Dutch cinema clip, In Memoriam Eduard van Beinum (alas, no subtitles):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdLuFoj2JrE

(Apologies for interrupting the thread with blabbering, instead of presenting a Top 10 list. :-[)

Sergeant Rock

#17
George Szell
Sergiu Celibidache
Lorin Maazel
Adrian Boult
Roger Norrington
Leonard Bernstein
Otto Klemperer
Carlo Maria Giulini
Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Giuseppe Sinopoli
Riccardo Chailly
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

j winter

Quote from: Marc on December 08, 2019, 10:38:03 AM

(Apologies for interrupting the thread with blabbering, instead of presenting a Top 10 list. :-[)

Not at all, thanks for sharing those links!  I'll have to check some of those out...
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

J.A.W.

Quote from: Marc on December 08, 2019, 10:38:03 AM
If I just skip the HIP-conductors that I like, I can very well live with your list. Probably with the exception of Szell, who mostly leaves me cold.
With me, it's not always a matter whether I like (most) of their recordings/interpretations though. Some of them are just awesome to watch in action. I mean, conductors like Walter, Furtwängler, Bernstein, Barbirolli and Klemperer (of your list) are entirely unique.

Here's a lovely 1 hour video of Bruno Walter conducting the Vancouver Festival Orchestra in rehearsal, combined with an interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaCoJbcRP2s

And Furtwängler rehearsing a part of Brahms 4, in post-war London (look at his annoyed, typical Furtwängler gestures at 0:02: SEIEN SIE DOCH STILL!!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYbb5KZYDg

A 'secret' favourite of mine is Dutch conductor Eduard van Beinum. But there are just a few clips of him in action. Here's a Concertgebouw performance of Beethoven's Eroica (May 5th, 1957):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgHzoI5TzeM

The tragedy of this clip is that we can see Van Beinum, almost secretly, has to take pills to be able to even continue (16:05 and 32:50). He suffered from a severe heart condition and was mostly completely spent after a concert. Problem was: despite doctor's advice, the man just would not stop or take a rest, he loved his job too much. Van Beinum died during a rehearsal in 1959, at the age of 58.

Dutch cinema clip, In Memoriam Eduard van Beinum (alas, no subtitles):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdLuFoj2JrE

(Apologies for interrupting the thread with blabbering, instead of presenting a Top 10 list. :-[)

In my opinion Eduard van Beinum is one of the most underrated conductors of the last century. I wish Universal/Decca would issue a box with his complete Decca and Philips recordings, some of which are currently available on the Australian Eloquence label.
Hans