Valery Gergiev

[uffeviking]

Since Gergiev so proudly mentioned his Scythian ancestors on the DVD I listed, I wouldn't accept anybody but him to present the Prokofiev as it should be presented.

[uffeviking]

Have anyone heard this by him? Is it good?

I have the CD! I am not a musician, not a pianist and not a conductor, but friends who are, all agreed that Toradze is the perfect pianist for those concertos and Gergiev is the supportive conductor to polish the performance to a brilliant shine!

[Greta]

Wanted to add, there is an excellent DVD out there of a conducting master class he gave in Rotterdam, called "The Master and His Pupil", well worth finding. Look it up at Dutch retailers. It's very interesting to watch how he works with the young conductors and how they grow over the clinic weekend. I believe the piece they worked on was Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, and it was with the Rotterdam Young Philharmonic. 
http://www.hastenslowlyfilms.com/gergiev/press-gergiev.htm

I like Gergiev in the Russian repertoire, and very much like his Rite of Spring disc. Haven't heard his opera, but would like to, and haven't seen him live either. But he is certainly a trip to watch on video!

[The new erato]

The Abbado on DG sounds mighty impressive on LP; don't know about CD remasterings, though.

[Harry]

I have the CD! I am not a musician, not a pianist and not a conductor, but friends who are, all agreed that Toradze is the perfect pianist for those concertos and Gergiev is the supportive conductor to polish the performance to a brilliant shine!

This is indeed a marvelous recording, and for me the very best on the market.

[canninator]

I like Gergiev a lot, have seen him in person dozens of times and have many of his recordings.  Yes, he can be maddeningly inconsistent, but when he is "on" he can be one of the best anywhere.  As donwyn mentioned, his opera recordings on Phillips are generally excellent: I'm a big fan of Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko thanks to Gergiev, and although I haven't heard the recording of War and Peace, I did hear him do it at the Met last month, and he was superb.

I heard a broadcast of this and it really was quite good so I was all the more confused as to why he was so lacklustre on the two occasions I have seen him.

[MDL]

His CD and DVD of Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel garnered some well-deserved plaudits. Apparently, BBC's Building A Library cited his Tchaikovsky Nutcracker as the top recommendation. I haven't heard any of his Mahler performances. When the London cycle was announced, I suspected that it wouldn't play to Gergiev's strengths, and the subsequent reviews seem to have confirmed that. Gergiev thrives on seat-of-the-pants spur-of-the-moment excitement, and Mahler needs a more balanced overview. I assume Gergiev will never tackle Bruckner.

[M forever]

Tonight ... we dine in hell!! 

That's pretty funny.

Since Gergiev so proudly mentioned his Scythian ancestors on the DVD I listed, I wouldn't accept anybody but him to present the Prokofiev as it should be presented.

That's pretty idiotic. Maybe you think it would sound even more authentic if Gergiev wore one of those pointy helmets while conducting the piece.

On a side note, if i want to get a single modern (great sound) version of Prokofiev's Scythian Suite, whose recording should i get?

The other items on the disc are great, too. The best Alexander Nevsky I have heard, and a very nice Lt.Kijé, too. AN is played by the CSO, the other pieces by the LSO. Very good sound, a little on the bright side, but very detailed and with good presence and color.

Unfortunately, his recording of # 1 is the worst recording I have ever heard.  It seems to be the fault of the recording engineer(s), not the conductor, but, incredibly, I have heard far better sound quality in material first recorded c. 1951.  This sounds like, maybe 1948 quality sound.

It's very dry and the orchestra sounds a little like it plays in a box (which is more or less true since I believe the recording was made live in the Barbican Hall which doesn't have really good acoustics, the orchestra sits there in the stage box but the sound does not develop into the room). But it's not *that* bad. The frequency range is certainly much better than anything recorded in the 40s and 50s. But the same dryness of sound is there in the other symphonies, too. The violins in particular sound a little flat and glary, almost as if they had played in another room and then were mixed in. But I have heard far worse. What I found more annoying is that you can hear Valery breathe and hiss more or less throughout the entire cycle.

[Marcel]

What I found more annoying is that you can hear Valery breathe and hiss more or less throughout the entire cycle.

You can find this "breathe and hiss" on other recordings, too.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The other items on the disc are great, too. The best Alexander Nevsky I have heard, and a very nice Lt.Kijé, too. AN is played by the CSO, the other pieces by the LSO. Very good sound, a little on the bright side, but very detailed and with good presence and color.

Agreed.

[MDL]

The other items on the disc are great, too. The best Alexander Nevsky I have heard, and a very nice Lt.Kijé, too. AN is played by the CSO, the other pieces by the LSO. Very good sound, a little on the bright side, but very detailed and with good presence and color.

Other way round. The Scythian Suite and Kijé are played by the CSO, Nevsky is played by the LSO.

[samtrb]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 5, Wiener Philharmoniker, Live (spontaneous, fresh recording)

a must have, the orchestra sound is very elegant, good balance and u cannot tell it's live until the applause at the end !

[Guido]

Does anyone else find his little hand vibratos on every beat really annoying? I could understand him doing this occasionally to bring accross the texture and feel he wants, but its clearly now involuntary and a mannerism and completely obscures his beat. It's like he has the palsy. I would hate to be conducted by him (or maybe I would just never look up!)

[Guido]

This made me chuckle (found it after a bit of googling):

But Gergiev is the only finger-flutterer I have ever seen. He beats time with the heel of his hand alone, palm up, no baton. This leaves the fingers to flutter at high speed above the fray, like feelers on an insect or an undersea creature, conveying the slightest change in nervous energy.

http://berkshirereview.net/2010/04/gergiev-mariinsky-orchestra-san-francisco-rachmaninoff-matsuev-shostakovich/

[False_Dmitry]

Does anyone else find his little hand vibratos on every beat really annoying? I could understand him doing this occasionally to bring accross the texture and feel he wants, but its clearly now involuntary and a mannerism and completely obscures his beat. It's like he has the palsy. I would hate to be conducted by him (or maybe I would just never look up!)

My budget rarely stretches to the top seats for his performances - so I have often found myself sitting behind the orchestra, and thus with an orchestral-player's view of his conducting.  (I sat there for his Moscow performances of TRISTAN, for example - which were in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, with the stalls seats pulled-out to accommodate the orchestra, and the action placed on the concert stage).  I can't understand what this wiggling stuff is supposed to convey!!   But he doesn't always do it.  The TRISTAN was clearly underrehearsed, and there was a lot more "survival" conducting going on!

[Drasko]

Not always baton-less, sometimes just bit less-than-a-baton

http://www.youtube.com/v/GHk1RmPzA5E 

[kishnevi]

Have several of his recordings, including of course the Mahler cycle.  One thing does make me think him a bit ridiculous--he's the only conductor I've ever seen who includes a credit for the designer responsible for his clothes (Zermengilda, IIRC).

[Superhorn]

  Yes,Gergiev can be erratic at times.But let's face it;at his best his performances are pure electricity. And they're not just loud and brutal. His performances can be much more than merely loud and fast too.
  Gergiev is not an actually a Russian but an ethnic Ossetian. He was born in Moscow of Ossetian parents, but grew up in North Ossetia .
  The Ossetians are the descendents of and last remnants of the ancient Scythians, and their language is not Slavic but of the Iranian language family,and much closer to Farsi,Kurdish and Pashto than the Slavic languages.

[eyeresist]

I didn't like his Prokofiev symphonies. He seems unable to communicate symphonic structure. But his Fiery Angel is the benchmark, and I've been listening to his Ivan the Terrible continually since I received it a couple of weeks ago. It's rather astounding listening, and convinced me to order his Nevsky, despite the mixed reception it got.

[Cato]

My brother recently delved into some of Gergiev's recordings of Mahler symphonies, finding them exciting at times, and then maddening.  He commented that sometimes within a few measures Gergiev goes from brilliant to ...why did he do that?

I found some scathing reviews of his Ring cycle from a few years ago in England.

See for example:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/damianthompson/100001908/gergievs-covent-garden-ring-is-a-primary-school-travesty-so-i-walked-out/

On the other baton, here is a rave for a performance of the Mahler Seventh:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/arts/music/25mahler.html

The only Gergiev recording I have is of a live performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Invisible City of Kitezh.  I find it most excellent.