Who are the mediocrities of conducting?

[mahler10th]

Some time ago I bought Mahler cycle by Neumann and the CPO - I also have Martinu symphonies by him etc...when I listened to the Mahler, I decided that Vaclav Neumann was not nearly as exciting as Tennstedt or Abbado or Inbal et al, and consigned Neumann and his entire output to the bottom of the shelf.   
Then, whilst maligning Neumann publicly, I was asked to listen to his Mahler again, but this time there were suggestions for what to listen FOR in Neumanns Mahler. 
So I did.  This time I listened very carefully indeed. 
After that, and on discovery of Neumanns nuances and precision musicianship, I was taken aback, and now Neumann is one of my top favourite conductors.  His Mahler is very fine - just because he doesn't trot out the big romantic symphony sound doesn't mean his Mahler is bad - on the contrary, it takes good listening and identification to hear what Neumann and the Czech Phil Orch are actually doing with Mahler, Martinu and his other offerings.  And what they are doing is very special indeed, it takes a very high calibre of conductor and orchestra to make Mahler not BIG as so many of my other Mahlerian heroes do, but astonishing in a way that only Neumann seems to do.    
So...Neumann for me went from zero to hero, but only because some kind person (FROM HOLLAND, A 10,000+ POSTER HERE) pointed out what I was missing and what it was I should listen FOR to help me understand Neumann better.
That is why it is important to listen to other opinions (for me), there will always be a real gem that can turn things around.   0:)

[Superhorn]

   It appears  that  there  a  lot  of  Solti   detractors   here.  I  could  not
disagree  more.  He  happens  to  be  one  of  my  favorite  conductors. 
  As  far  as  I  am  concerned,  his  Wagner,  Mahler, Richard  Strauss,  Bartok
Bruckner  etc  have  never  been  bettered.  Other  conductors  such  as 
Karajan, Furtwangler,  Knappertsbusch,  Bohm, Kempe,  etc  were  all  great  Wagnerians,  but  Solti's  Wagner  is  simply magnificent.
   Solti  was  home  in  a  wide  variety  of  repertoire,  and  I  also  admire  him  in  Elgar.  Nobody  can  accuse  Elgar's  music  of  being  dull, stodgy and  pompous  after  hearing  Solti's  recordings. 
   Sir  Reginald  Goodall   was  considered  one  of  the  great Wagnerians  by  many,  but  he  never  seemed  to  me to  have  a  clue  about  this  composer.
   His  Wagner  is  absolutely somnolent;  there  is  absoltely  no   momentum;
  just  a combination  of  turgidity  and   limpness.  Dead  in  the  water.
   Szell  was  a  pehnomenal  technician,  but  his  recordings  have always
struck  me  as  the  most  wooden  I  have  ever  heard;  every  note  is  perfect and  in  place,  but  it's  all  terribly  dry  and  exaggeratedly  clipped  in  phrasing  and the  brass  section  pecks  at  the  notes  without  the
round, velvety  tone  of  the  Vienna  and  Berlin  PO  brass.
   Toscanini's  NBC  performances   have  always  struck  me  as  coarse,  choppy, hectic, punchy, nervous,  metronomic.  They  are  mechanical,  and  joyless.   Ormandy  got  a  really  plush  sound  out  of  the  Philadelphians,
but  he  tended  to  concentrate  on  surface, generalized  plushness  and
tended  to  apply  a  one  style  fits  all  interpretation  to  all  composers.
   All  you  get  with  Ormandy  are  generalized  plush  sounds. 
   There  are  however, a  lot  of  excellent  conductors  today  and  I  reject
the  notion  that   the  past  alone  was  the  golden  age.  And  there  are  some  very  talented  youngsters  with  great  potential  such  as  Dudamel,
Mikko  Franck,  Vladimir  Jurowski,  Philippe  Jordan  (son  of  the  late  Armin),
  and  others.

[M forever]

What's going on with the formatting of your posts? It makes them really hard to read.

[eyeresist]

Critics  have  treated  him  the  way  conservatives  have  treated  Obama.  He's  been  accused  of  indifference  to  and  neglect  of  contemporary  music,  and  one  critic  accused  him  of  programming  nothing  but "easy  listening".  This  is  not  only  grossly  unfair, but  idiotically  untrue.  He  has  always  been  a  staunch  champion  of  difficult  new  music,  and  has  given  exemplary  performances.

Certainly glad to hear that Obama supports contemporary music - oh, no, wait, I see what you meant... 

[Brian]

Certainly glad to hear that Obama supports contemporary music - oh, no, wait, I see what you meant... 

It would be pretty cool if Obama was found listening to the symphonies of Adolphus Hailstork on his campaign bus.

[Lethevich]

Some time ago I bought Mahler cycle by Neumann and the CPO - I also have Martinu symphonies by him etc...when I listened to the Mahler, I decided that Vaclav Neumann was not nearly as exciting as Tennstedt or Abbado or Inbal et al, and consigned Neumann and his entire output to the bottom of the shelf.   
Then, whilst maligning Neumann publicly, I was asked to listen to his Mahler again, but this time there were suggestions for what to listen FOR in Neumanns Mahler. 
So I did.  This time I listened very carefully indeed. 
After that, and on discovery of Neumanns nuances and precision musicianship, I was taken aback, and now Neumann is one of my top favourite conductors.  His Mahler is very fine - just because he doesn't trot out the big romantic symphony sound doesn't mean his Mahler is bad - on the contrary, it takes good listening and identification to hear what Neumann and the Czech Phil Orch are actually doing with Mahler, Martinu and his other offerings.  And what they are doing is very special indeed, it takes a very high calibre of conductor and orchestra to make Mahler not BIG as so many of my other Mahlerian heroes do, but astonishing in a way that only Neumann seems to do.    
So...Neumann for me went from zero to hero, but only because some kind person (FROM HOLLAND, A 10,000+ POSTER HERE) pointed out what I was missing and what it was I should listen FOR to help me understand Neumann better.
That is why it is important to listen to other opinions (for me), there will always be a real gem that can turn things around.   0:)

Yep, he's a real no-fuss conductor, but brilliant at what he does - and aided by his "local orchestra" being one of the best out there. It's almost a cliche to say how good his Dvořák is ("Czech music, played by a Czech orchestra, led by a Czech conductor, wow how 'idiomatic'*", etc), but regardless of the forces the interps are simply brilliant.

*M's discussions about the accuracy of this word in the past year or so have made me notice how overused it is, especially in superficial observations such as this.