What IF...??!!!

[ChamberNut]

What if Karajan had really been a lizard?

[Cato]

What if Karajan had really been a lizard?

Herbert von Gecko?

[Opus106]

Kubrick hadn't used classical music in his movies?

[King Karajan]

Kubrick hadn't used classical music in his movies?

OMG!!! I couldn't imagine! They would be lesser films for sure!

[Opus106]

OMG!!! I couldn't imagine! They would be lesser films for sure!

I can't say, since I haven't watched any of them. But I've come across so many people on internet message boards such as this one whose attention was turned towards this genre of music after watching one or more of his films. (It's usually 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Clockwork Orange.)

[Superhorn]

  What if Solti had lived long enough to record a remake of  Tristan for Decca? He was scheduled to not long before his death.
  Sad. But I still think the one with Nilsson is very underrated.
  Or if he had conducted Gurrelieder and recorded it?
  If Karajan had done more of the Nielsen symphonies(He recorded only the inextinguishable for DG with the BPO.).

   If Kubelik could have recorded the Janacek operas?  He never did.

  If Schoenberg had been able to complete Moses & Aron?

   If Mahler had lived long enough to complete his 10th symphony?
 
   If Wagner had lived longer ? He was planning to write symphonies ! 
   And he would have written Die Sieger, (The Victors), an opera based on the life of the Buddha !

   If Toscanini had recorded complete Wagner operas? The only complete one is a live Meistersinger from Salzburg, which was recrded but I have not heard.
 
   If Furtwangler had lived long enough to make a complete studio recording of the Ring? He died just after recording Die Walkure with the Vienna Philharmonic. I have it.and it's a truly great performance.

  If Victor de Sabata had not had been forced retire from conducting because of heart trouble in the 50s ? (He lived until 1967).  He would have recorded more operas,perhaps with Callas etc.  And left more orchestral recordings.

  If Beethoven had written more operas ? He was considered Shakespeare's Macbeth ! That might have been something !



 

[Superhorn]

  Correction : that should been "he was considering". Finger error.

[Diletante]

Kubrick hadn't used classical music in his movies?

OMFG I'd probably be listening to 'normal' music right now!

What if Beethoven were born deaf? 

[snyprrr]

first thing that pops into mind:

SIBELIUS SYM. NO.8!!!!!!!!!

[Peregrine]

- Heifetz had recorded the Four Seasons

- We had recordings of Furtwangler conducting Mahler Symphonies

[Brian]

- Karajan records Rach 2

If you mean the Second Symphony, then I agree, that would be a must-have.

What if...
...Mussorgsky hadn't been a alcoholic

The loss of Mussorgsky is a great one. I recently had the opportunity to hear extended excerpts from Khovanshchina live and was blown away by their brilliance - and how visionary they were for their time.

...Bach had been an atheist

His church music would have sounded more like this.

[Lethevich]

- Wagner even began his planned one-movement symphonies to be written after Parsifal's completion.

[Benji]

first thing that pops into mind:

SIBELIUS SYM. NO.8!!!!!!!!!

What if the 8th symphony existed but it was so dire we all wished he'd thrown it in a fire?

I do sometimes wish I could go back in time and tell him to snap out of it! Listening to the incidental music to The Tempest, which contains some absolutely brilliant and innovative music, I am convinced that there were many musical roads he could have chosen to go down. Some of more dissonant moments in The Tempest fire my imagination and I wonder just how radical Sibelius could have become if he'd allowed himself.

[Ric]

What if Bach had known a Bruckner's symphony?.

Some times I have thought on this unbelievable possibility. Bach, Mozart or Beethoven coming back from the future.

[purephase]

-Webern was a non-smoker.

-Kubelik was not run out of Chicago.

[Diletante]

-Webern was a non-smoker.

Heh, good one.


What if popular TV shows and movies would use Schoenberg, Xenakis et al. excerpts instead of the usual cliché excerpts? If we had grown up listening to atonal (& avant-garde, etc.) pieces in every cartoon we saw, would our musical taste be different?

[MISHUGINA]

If you mean the 2nd Piano Concerto, he has recorded it, on CD for EMI, and on video (currently DVD) for Unitel, with Alexis Weissenberg.

Actually I meant the 2nd symphony. Just thinking about the gorgeous 3rd movement and its pity Karajan didn't record the work.

[Renfield]

Actually I meant the 2nd symphony. Just thinking about the gorgeous 3rd movement and its pity Karajan didn't record the work.

I actually think that he wanted to record this with either EMI or DG, but they wouldn't let him because it wasn't a mainstream work.

[Brian]

I actually think that he wanted to record this with either EMI or DG, but they wouldn't let him because it wasn't a mainstream work.

A crime.

And an odd thing to reply to the master, given (a) he was Karajan and anything he did would sell, and (b) Ormandy made a whole string of Rach 2's, at roughly the same time.

[Renfield]

A crime.

And an odd thing to reply to the master, given (a) he was Karajan and anything he did would sell, and (b) Ormandy made a whole string of Rach 2's, at roughly the same time.

He was inkling to record the Shostakovich 8th, as well, which they (I think EMI) blocked for similar reasons. Now that would have been something!