Classical music thread welcoming your suggestions and why...


My best for Schumann 4 th

Incredible haunting surreal out of this world Furtwangler whose interpretation had never even be rivaled save by Klemperer mastery second, but really only second... Furtwangler here surpass all maestros and taught a lesson ...Perhaps the greatest musical recording among all his recordings, if not, i dont even know which one is over this one....

i stop listening anything after these two, which give their musical direction the power to reveal Schumann obsessiveness near madness and his way to control it with music healing power over tempest...

is it music? It is more a desesperate victorious act to keep control over oneself by music writing ... It is the way Furt, directed it... A glimpse of hope amidst terrors and in spite of it , as a boat lost on sea between sunrising and sun down and directed as such by these two maestros... Sometimes a whirlwind capture us desesperate and is replaced by a false calm and the sun illuminate the darkness to be replaced by fate returning in the turmoil again and again ...

The suggestive power of this music put Schumann beside Beethoven with his evocative power and Furtwangler and Klemperer knows it , it is not another musical piece, but the radiography of a soul...

Sometimes music is more than just music... Here it is the case...

it is not a leisure nor a mere pleasure more a deep vision, crisis, meditation, a trance ...

Any other maestro direct it only as a beautiful musical piece... It is not...It is a mystery dancing in some living soul and here for us to see not just listen ...

...

If the world spiritual had a meaning in music it is now...

 

Furtwangler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbyEiplksn0

 

Klemperer :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkU8ULGs4aE

 

128x128mahgister

i too like the sentence :

It may not storm the gates of heaven like J.S. Bach, but it paves the streets leading to those gates, 

It resonates with my (short) impressions of his work -- which include the oboe sonatas (Holliger, I agree of course).

Sorry to join in so late, but I would like to add to the discussion on D Barenboim: I propose to rephrase the question as,

DB,  a conductor or a pianist?

I have heard DB both as a conductor (Elgar, Brahms, etc) and pianist (Brahms 1, 7 other recordings). 

My response is, definitely much better pianist than conductor... I am not a music professional so mine is an amateurish approach.

My experience with the discussion, re maestros, resonates with the thoughts expressed above, especially regarding Furt & Celi & T... to add a short comment, both F & C succeed in touching the listener's inner soul and, by their conducting, let out the humanity hidden in many compositions (many examples; Celi: Mozart Requiem, Furt: Beethoven 3 recording of 1944 (?) in Vienna...)

In this respect, trying to emulate Furt, for example, is a limitation in itself, in that 

a) we already have Furtwangler, the original item😉

b) following endlessly in someone else's footsteps often leads one away from discovering their own path

Whereas, as a pianist, DB played an exciting /interesting Brahms under Celibidache & recently under Sir Simon Rattle. (Although for this piece I would prefer Gilels)

Regards

 

Another conductor worthy of mention for his passionate dynamics, tender adagios, and understanding of soloists, is Sir John (born Giovani Battista) Barbirolli. When I first listened to Barbirolli's Mahler 2 & 4 I was transported. 

A contemporary who seems to be on a (relentless) path of discovery is Theodore Currentzis. While many are suspicious of his approaches and his affectations (spending the night at the music hall with the orchestra, rehearsing in the middle of the night, analysing together the score with the composer's personality, the moment in time of the composition, and the emotional content he wishes to inspire...) -- I don't care. I the listener, am only subjected to the result, and the result can be magical at times (take the Mozart Requiem Lacrymosa, for example).

At the end of the day, I believe that what attracts me the most is the conductor\s personality and their psyche which emerges through the music; T was a powerhouse and, although he was a master of timing and score, what I get from his music is ultimately the power, the strength, and a sense of huge confidence. Furt OTOH was an amateur philosopher, very knowledgeable in ancient Greek philosophy (which he apparently read in the original text...) and his sense of humanity is evident in the music - i think.

A note re, Pollini - his technical prowess is beguiling. The only thing for me is that he seems to attack pieces of music as if he is solving a mathematical equation...

There is a large Barbirolli box that has been released, with many 78 recordings.

My impressions of J.B. Are from his stereo recordings, in his last decade or so.

His Mahler is impressive, but ultimately just to slow and world weary for me.  I like the Sibelius stereo set with the Halle Orchestra, but  the Orchestral deficiencies are wearying.  It would be interesting to hear the younger J.B.

  Re Curentzis, I admit that I am one of those that is off put by his relentless P.R. Machine.  The one recording of his that I did stream, Tchaikovsky 6, didn’t begin to live up to the hype.

  I second the comments about Barenboim as a Furtwangler wanna be.  The young D.B. was so phenomenally talented.  It just seems weird to want to ape another musician to the extent that he has, and to alter the natural growth curve that he may otherwise have experienced.  Furtwangler make it seem as though he was playing the Orchestra like an individual instrument, exercising complete command, apparently able to manipulate the musicians to follow him wherever he went.   I think it was that improvisatory feel that D.B. the Pianist wanted to bring to his conducting 

This thread takes me back to my Tower Records days at the Panorama City branch, where the classical music department was up the squeaky stairs to the second floor. There was the customer who pronounced Deutsche Grammophon as "duchesses grab-a-phone," and Daniel Barenboim as Daniel Bound-boom. He was a good guy, though, who always bought one or two albums.