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Posted by David Lee on March 19, 2006, 11:22 pm, in reply to "Re: Greatest Conductor" As to Reiner I cannot criticize any of his recordings negatively...however music is a live experience and apparently in the concert hall Reiner was very electric according to freinds of mine who saw him and worked under him. As to Karajan it is his choice as the greatest of all time that is difficult....... but he certainly created the image of the 'jet set' conductor. He has a wonnderfully wide and varied repetoire and was one of the few people in the mid 50s championing Reshigi and Sibelius. I also find his Beethoven always interesting although after the 62 cycle I wonder why he needed to record it three more time! The last cycle is boring !! Bernstein is a great Mahler interpreter so there...however I do have a weak spot for Lenny but not in Mozart and Beethoven. I also found Bernstein to be a fine opera conductor but less interesting as an orchestral conductor as he got older!!! That being said I really think Bernstein did wonders with Stravinsky and Mahler and his Mahler cycle in New York on CBS is groundbreaking with a super 9th! As to Kubelik he is one of the greatest musicians who ever lived and I have the great pleasure to play under him. HE would be the default choice for greatest underrated conductor of the last century. His Mahler cycle is very good and his Bruckner was very fine as well! So...where does that leave us...well Gunter Wand was quite popular as the current favorite but I always found his Beethoven a bit dull...Rattle is still finding his way but has a lot of learning I suspect in much repetoire. Harnoncourt is abrasive at times...Maazel never panned out as the great conductors. Mazur is very good but in a narrow spectrum.... It makes one realize how great some of these names were when I was growing up'' Hans Rosbaud
207.179.149.113
Bruno Walter is easily one of the greats....he consistently performed a wide variety of music very well and learned a good deal from Mahler.
Hermann Scherchen
Guido Cantelli
Carl Maria Giulini
Erich and Carlos Kleiber
Andre Cluytens
Charles Munch
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