All conductors seem to have pieces they have a special affinity for which are not part of the standard repertoire/lesser-known but that which they have played often live and recorded in studio.
A few examples:
1. James Levine seems to have played/recorded Gurre-Lieder several times (it's not rare but having multiple recordings/performing it often is...)
2. Ozawa and Abbado liked the Bruckner First (especially the latter given his three recordings of it)
3. Rattle in general seems to love American music such as Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (one performance on EMI, another on Digital Concert Hall) and Bernstein's A Wonderful Town (also twice); also know of 2 instances of Berlioz's Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale
4. Giulini/Muti and Bruckner 2 (3 recordings each)
5. Orozco-Estrada and Strauss Macbeth (3 recordings at least - DCH, YT and on album)
6. K. Petrenko and Tchaikovsky operas
(I will add more as I remember but these are what I can remember correctly.)
I personally find it fascinating to see which pieces conductors have a special affinity for - pieces that are beyond the stale standard repertoire. It's a chance for listeners to expose themselves to pieces they may not have listened to otherwise. Anyone else find it interesting?
Very! I especially find it interesting when they have multiple specialties which are very different from each other. Charles Mackerras was known as a specialist in Czech music, especially Janacek operas...and also Handel's Water Music. Or Christopher Hogwood being a specialist in 1700s period instrument performance...and also 1920-1940 neoclassical music by Stravinsky and Martinu. Vladimir Ashkenazy may be the only conductor who has done multiple recordings of the Sibelius and Rachmaninov symphonies.
Karajan recorded Shostakovich Sym #10 twice, but none of the other DSCH symphonies even once.
Harnoncourt recorded Schumann's obscure opera "Genoveva" twice.
Harnoncourt thought of it as one of the greatest operas ever and a highly innovative work.
(I only gave the opera a try due to him and now more or less share his opinion)
Karajan recorded Tchaikovsky many times, which might seem surprising at first glance. However, at a closer look, it is less so — after all, Tchaikovsky was the favorite non-German composer of Karajan's Parteigenosse, Adolf Hitler.
Quote from: Louis on February 08, 2025, 11:16:37 PMHarnoncourt recorded Schumann's obscure opera "Genoveva" twice.
Harnoncourt thought of it as one of the greatest operas ever and a highly innovative work.
(I only gave the opera a try due to him and now more or less share his opinion)
Speaking of, he's also the only conductor AFAIK to have recorded the Schubert symphonies
thrice. In fact has anyone even recorded them twice? Clearly he must have loved the works greatly. His interpretations remained... peculiar though. Bizarre.
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 09, 2025, 01:01:42 AMParteigenosse
Leaving aside the specious insinuations about Karajan's past, the reasoning is defective. Karajan's penchant for performing Tchaikovsky is in line with the discography of other conductors of major orchestras, preferences of concert audiences, and desire of record producers to sell records. Hitler's preference for Tchaikovsky is not unusual, since Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers of classical music. It would be like saying Yo-Yo Ma's preference for white rice is not surprising, since it was the favorite of Chairman Mao.
I have noticed that Karajan has often returned to Dvorak's New World Symphony.
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on February 08, 2025, 07:41:54 AMKarajan recorded Shostakovich Sym #10 twice, but none of the other DSCH symphonies even once.
I read somewhere that Karajan had proposed recording several other Shostakovich symphonies to EMI, but they declined because they didn't consider him a Shostakovich conductor. The fact that Karajan recorded all of the Sibelius symphonies except the third strikes me as the oddest thing about his discography.
Quote from: Spotted Horses on February 09, 2025, 08:46:12 AMThe fact that Karajan recorded all of the Sibelius symphonies except the third strikes me as the oddest thing about his discography.
Agreed. That's sort of the reverse of this thread's premise. It reminds me of how certain historically important Mahler conductors refused to perform some of the symphonies, Walter and Klemperer for instance.
Solti not only conducted Wagner with all appropriate bombast, but did surprisingly good jobs on Marriage of Figaro and Moses und Aron.
Riccardo Muti championed Cherubini, particularly his Masses and Requiems.
Quote from: Spotted Horses on February 09, 2025, 08:28:23 AMLeaving aside the specious insinuations about Karajan's past, the reasoning is defective. Karajan's penchant for performing Tchaikovsky is in line with the discography of other conductors of major orchestras, preferences of concert audiences, and desire of record producers to sell records. Hitler's preference for Tchaikovsky is not unusual, since Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers of classical music. It would be like saying Yo-Yo Ma's preference for white rice is not surprising, since it was the favorite of Chairman Mao.
This is the post of the year, especially the Yo-Yo Ma analogy. :laugh:
Quote from: Spotted Horses on February 09, 2025, 08:46:12 AMI read somewhere that Karajan had proposed recording several other Shostakovich symphonies to EMI, but they declined because they didn't consider him a Shostakovich conductor. The fact that Karajan recorded all of the Sibelius symphonies except the third strikes me as the oddest thing about his discography.
He's not the only one... Several other Sibelians like Beecham didn't either. The Third is the Bruckner Sixth of the cycle I guess.
Quote from: lordlance on February 09, 2025, 09:22:55 AMHe's not the only one... Several other Sibelians like Beecham didn't either. The Third is the Bruckner Sixth of the cycle I guess.
Ormandy was another.
Abbado: recorded at least 2 different (albeit overlapping) discs with partly obscure Mussorgsky excerpts as well as Khovanshchina, also Schubert's Grand Duo and the opera Fierrabras
Boulez: Handel's water music (twice) and fillers, also Bartok's earlyish 4 pieces twice
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on February 09, 2025, 09:11:35 AMSolti not only conducted Wagner with all appropriate bombast, but did surprisingly good jobs on Marriage of Figaro and Moses und Aron.
Excellent magic flute with Prey and Deutekom as well!
While haven't heard them, Solti also recorded Bach's St Matthew and b minor mass as well as Handel's Messiah which was not that common anymore for conductor of mostly symphonic/orchestral music in the late 1980s.
Quote from: lordlance on February 09, 2025, 07:12:11 AMSpeaking of, he's also the only conductor AFAIK to have recorded the Schubert symphonies thrice. In fact has anyone even recorded them twice? Clearly he must have loved the works greatly. His interpretations remained... peculiar though. Bizarre.
Menuhin, a conductor only for the latter half of his career also recorded the Schubert symphonies twice (EMI and Teldec?).
In the case of Harnoncourt I wonder what the story is behind that European chamber orchestra (live) recordings that seem to precede the first official Concertgebouw cycle but were only posthumously published.
Quote from: Jo498 on February 09, 2025, 09:26:06 AMAbbado: recorded at least 2 different (albeit overlapping) discs with partly obscure Mussorgsky excerpts as well as Khovanshchina, also Schubert's Grand Duo and the opera Fierrabras
And several Rossini operas multiple times as well. Abbado is another person with an interesting variety of specialties. Rossini, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Debussy, and Brahms is an unusual collection.
The new Michael Tilson Thomas box set from Sony contains something like three performances of Rhapsody in Blue, I think two Americans in Paris, two complete Gershwin musicals, at least two Gershwin song recitals, and a Gershwin overture overture disc.
Quote from: Jo498 on February 09, 2025, 09:26:06 AM...
Boulez: Handel's water music (twice) and fillers, also Bartok's earlyish 4 pieces twice
And concertos by
C.P.E. Bach for Harmonia Mundi (very rare...)
Quote from: Brian on February 09, 2025, 09:39:54 AMAnd several Rossini operas multiple times as well. Abbado is another person with an interesting variety of specialties. Rossini, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Debussy, and Brahms is an unusual collection.
Abbado recorded the
Brandenburg Concertos twice. Firstly, very early in his career for RCA IIRC (a recording I don't know) and then, very late (with the Orchestra Mozart and a distinguished roster of soloists, a recording I find very successful).
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on February 09, 2025, 09:11:35 AMSolti not only conducted Wagner with all appropriate bombast, but did surprisingly good jobs on Marriage of Figaro and Moses und Aron.
I feel that his Moses und Aron is the best I've heard (I also prefer his Wagner - bombast is right - love it). :)
Boulez seemed to have a special affinity for Bartok's The Wooden Prince. He recorded it twice. It strikes me as unusual because it's a plush, Romantic piece that doesn't sound much like the later Bartok. I heard him conduct it at Carnegie, with another GMG-er who expressed skepticism toward the piece.
Boulez recorded most major and some minor Bartok first for CBS and 20-30 years later again for DG. AFAIK he ignored the really early pieces like Kossuth.
The Wooden Prince is later than Bluebeard's Castle and not quite as plush, I'd say.
Karl Böhm recorded the last 3 Tchaikovsky symphonies with the LSO toward the end of his life. There's also a late 1970s recording of the 4th on Orfeo, with the Czech Phil. I believe there is another one dating from the 1950s but I have no details. His way with the symphonies is serious, tragic but surprisingly theatrical.
Charles Munch was a Berlioz specialist way before Colin Davis. He recorded the Requiem twice, the Fantastique half a dozen times as well as just about everything else (except the Te Deum). Munch also championed Roussel tirelessly in his Boston concerts. The Boston audiences were probably exposed to the Suite en fa, Bacchus et Ariane, the 3rd symphony more than they cared for.
Quote from: Spotted Horses on February 09, 2025, 08:28:23 AMLeaving aside the specious insinuations about Karajan's past, the reasoning is defective. Karajan's penchant for performing Tchaikovsky is in line with the discography of other conductors of major orchestras, preferences of concert audiences, and desire of record producers to sell records. Hitler's preference for Tchaikovsky is not unusual, since Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers of classical music. It would be like saying Yo-Yo Ma's preference for white rice is not surprising, since it was the favorite of Chairman Mao.
I have noticed that Karajan has often returned to Dvorak's New World Symphony.
Nevertheless, many outstanding German and Austrian conductors recorded Tchaikovsky only rarely, such as Klemperer, Böhm, Knappertsbusch, Kempe, or Wand.
Quote from: lordlance on February 09, 2025, 07:12:11 AMSpeaking of, he's also the only conductor AFAIK to have recorded the Schubert symphonies thrice. In fact has anyone even recorded them twice? Clearly he must have loved the works greatly. His interpretations remained... peculiar though. Bizarre.
He had a lot of rather eccentric opinions. He also thought of Haydn's operas as great works. Porgy&Bess was for him "America's Wozzeck" (He recorded that too)
Not only did he record Genoveva or Haydn's operas, he also loved giving interviews telling everyone whenever he can how great that stuff is.
The funny thing is I like Genoveva due to him, but I never liked his recording. I always preferred the Kurt Masur one.
I never shared most of his opinions but I found it refreshing to have a conductor with such an idiosyncratic interest outside the standard repertoire. Particularly in his generation where the standard repertoire was still much more...standard
Although Kurt Sanderling recorded a reasonably diverse repertoire, he had certain party pieces which he was forever performing in concert. Of the three times I was lucky enough to hear him live, he twice did Shostakovich 15th symphony -- and indeed wrote a long and very emotional programme note about the piece in Leipzig 1986 as an insert to the "offical" one which was much more matter of fact. The other was, almost inevitably Rachmaninov 2nd which (in London, I think) established his reputation with the Leningrad Phil, although to be honest, I much prefer his later interpretations.
Quote from: lunar22 on February 15, 2025, 07:03:14 AMAlthough Kurt Sanderling recorded a reasonably diverse repertoire, he had certain party pieces which he was forever performing in concert. Of the three times I was lucky enough to hear him live, he twice did Shostakovich 15th symphony -- and indeed wrote a long and very emotional programme note about the piece in Leipzig 1986 as an insert to the "offical" one which was much more matter of fact. The other was, almost inevitably Rachmaninov 2nd which (in London, I think) established his reputation with the Leningrad Phil, although to be honest, I much prefer his later interpretations.
Did he have a close relationship with the piece/composer? How did his interpretation change of the Rachmaninoff Second over the years?
The Rachmaninoff became slower and for me more emotionally intense as he got older. As for Shostakovich, Sanderling was certainly a friend and great admirer and someone the composer trusted. He was particularly interested in the more "puzzling" works which might have had a hidden message and this might be one reason why he was especially a champion (and by far the best interpreter of in my view) the 15th. On the other hand, he never recorded the "Leningrad" as he possibly found the work suspect, though that's great shame in my book.
Regarding Karajan and Tchaikovsky:
Tchaikovsky was already pre 1933 an extremely popular composer in Germany (one of the most performed by Furtwängler and the Berliner). Also they kept performing him till the start of the German-Soviet war in 1941.
I never heard before that Hitler liked Tchaikovky's music.
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 09, 2025, 01:01:42 AMKarajan recorded Tchaikovsky many times, which might seem surprising at first glance. However, at a closer look, it is less so — after all, Tchaikovsky was the favorite non-German composer of Karajan's Parteigenosse, Adolf Hitler.
And if Hitler liked cabbage, should I stop eating it? If he liked Pride and Prejudice should I burn every Jane Austen book I see? I don't see the point of bringing up Hitler in this context.
Quote from: DavidW on February 16, 2025, 04:45:10 AMAnd if Hitler liked cabbage, should I stop eating it? If he liked Pride and Prejudice should I burn every Jane Austen book I see? I don't see the point of bringing up Hitler in this context.
Does my comment suggest rejecting or embracing Tchaikovsky's music just because Hitler liked it? If that worries you, take comfort — Stalin was a fan too. And so is Putin. Funny how bloodthirsty dictators have a soft spot for Tchaikovsky's sentimental sobbing and grandiose posturing. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 16, 2025, 06:10:20 PMDoes my comment suggest rejecting or embracing Tchaikovsky's music just because Hitler liked it? If that worries you, take comfort — Stalin was a fan too. And so is Putin. Funny how bloodthirsty dictators have a soft spot for Tchaikovsky's sentimental sobbing and grandiose posturing. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Both saints and devils love Tchaikovsky's music because it is transcendent.
Quote from: DavidW on February 17, 2025, 06:07:25 AMBoth saints and devils love Tchaikovsky's music because it is transcendent.
Hans Frank was a proficient pianist who loved Schubert and Chopin. By some peculiarly twisted logic, Poland should ban Schubert's and Chopin's music, right? ;D
Are we really going down that road? We all know how these discussions (which bear little if any relation to the music itself) end...
Please!
Quote from: ritter on February 17, 2025, 06:28:32 AMAre we really going down that road? We all know how these discussions (which bear little if any relation to the music itself) end...
Please!
Feel free to delete my post if you think it's inappropriate, Rafael, but I think that in the current international context one cannot stress enough that the relationship between great art and totalitarianism is not so clear cut and black-and-white as some people seem to think.
Quote from: Florestan on February 17, 2025, 06:52:06 AMFeel free to delete my post if you think it's inappropriate, Rafael, but I think that in the current international context one cannot stress enough that the relationship between great art and totalitarianism is not so clear cut and black-and-white as some people seem to think.
That one member took the conversation in that direction (talking about a conductor who died 35 years, a dictator who died 80 years ago, and a composer who died when the dictator was barely 4 years of age) doesn't mean we all have to go there.
What I will not tolerate is a thread on conductors' "special unusual pieces" turning into discussion on totalitarianism and great art. No need for that. No need to delete any posts so far, either. But I ask all GMGers to understand that poisoning threads unnecessarily is not really a very sensible thing to do...
Quote from: ritter on February 17, 2025, 07:06:18 AMThat one member took the conversation in that direction (talking about a conductor who died 35 years, a dictator who died 80 years ago, and a composer who died when the dictator was barely 4 years of age) doesn't mean we all have to go there.
What I will not tolerate is a thread on conductors' "special unusual pieces" turning into discussion on totalitarianism and great art. No need for that. No need to delete any posts so far, either. But I ask all GMGers to understand that poisoning threads unnecessarily is not really a very sensible thing to do...
Thanks for the third-person mention—quite charming. Not that it makes any difference to me.
That said, maybe I just see art and life as more intertwined than you do.
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2025, 07:26:54 AMThanks for the third-person mention—quite charming.
You're welcome.
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 16, 2025, 06:10:20 PMDoes my comment suggest rejecting or embracing Tchaikovsky's music just because Hitler liked it? If that worries you, take comfort — Stalin was a fan too. And so is Putin. Funny how bloodthirsty dictators have a soft spot for Tchaikovsky's sentimental sobbing and grandiose posturing. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Note to self; I love "Tchaikovsky's sentimental sobbing and grandiose posturing" - therefore I need to work more on becoming a bloodthirsty dictator so that I can conform to type.