15-06-2005 20:15									#1
	Conductor Carlo Maria Giulini dies Put an end to popups!

Not that many folks here will care, but I had to mention it, as he was indeed one of the greats.

[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050615/ap_en_mu/obit_giulini[/ url];_ylt=Al6bB8aV9rreTfh7ud3r7r6mG78C;_ylu=X3oDMT
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quote: Italian Conductor Giulini Dies at 91 By AIDAN LEWIS, Associated Press Writer 34 minutes ago ROME - Carlo Maria Giulini, the Italian maestro whose rigorous and spiritual interpretations of classical music made him a conducting giant of the 20th century, has died. He was 91. Giulini died Tuesday in Brescia in northern Italy, his son Alberto Maria Giulini said Wednesday. The cause of the death wasn't given. A young friend of the great Arturo Toscanini, Giulini bridged the golden age of conducting and a later generation of Italian maestros like Riccardo Muti and Claudio Abbado. After studying the viola and conducting at Rome's Academy of Santa Cecilia, Giulini made his conducting debut in 1944 in the Italian capital. He had conducting stints at La Scala, the Chicago Symphony and the Vienna Symphony, and served as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1978 to 1985 — his last permanent post, which he resigned to spend more time with his ailing wife. In Los Angeles, where he said his only friend was the comedian Danny Kaye, his contract specifically exempted him from any part in the social whirl. That was typical Giulini. A modest, nearly ascetic man, he saw conducting as a priestly mission, a ministry for the gods of classical music. "We have to deal with genius, and we are small men," he once said. In later years, Giulini stuck close to his home in Milan, conducting Europe's great orchestras but renouncing the opera pit because of the long rehearsals. Giulini concentrated on Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Bruckner and Schubert. For opera he preferred Mozart, conducting little Puccini or Wagner. Defending his choice of repertoire in a newspaper interview for his 80th birthday, Giulini said: "I have to believe in every note, to feel myself immersed. If that doesn't happen, mere technique would take the field. The appropriation (of the music) must be rational and emotional, without ever forgetting that the conductor is a musician in the service of the geniuses of music. ... We are only interpreters." Giulini's reverence for the masters often produced an almost religious quality in his works. His tempos slowed down considerably as he aged. "Opinion has been divided about his slow tempos, but there is widespread acknowledgment of the exceptional mellowness of his interpretations, the richness of string textures and the seriousness of purpose with which he inspires both instrumentalists and singers," Robert Philip wrote in Giulini's entry in Grove Music Online. A number of Giulini's recordings, especially Verdi's "Requiem" and "Falstaff," are treasured by music buffs, and many Mozart-lovers considered his "Don Giovanni" the best version ever. Critics also gave Giulini high praise for his sensitive accompanying on concerto recordings. Giulini's search for insight sometimes produced pauses in his career, when he would stay away from the podium for periods of reading, reflection and study. "Music is an act of love," he would say, dismissing ambition. Career? "The word is repugnant to me," he told an interviewer. "I'm not like a corporal who has to become a captain." Born in Barletta, near the southern Adriatic city of Bari, on May 9, 1914, Carlo Maria Giulini studied violin and viola. At 19, he won a viola position in the Santa Cecilia orchestra when it played in Rome's Teatro Augusteo. Because of the theater's spectacular acoustics, it was a regular stop for the age's superstar conductors. Thus Giulini played under giants like Wilhelm Furtwangler, Bruno Walter, Willem Mengelberg and Richard Strauss. Giulini received a conducting degree in 1941 from the Santa Cecilia conservatory, studying with Bernardino Molinari. When war broke out, he went to the Yugoslav front with the Italian army. But he opposed Fascism and later went underground, hiding for nine months in a secret room in the house of his wife's uncle. A portrait of Mussolini hung on the wall outside. Within weeks of the Allied liberation of Rome in 1944, Giulini emerged to conduct the Santa Cecilia orchestra in the freed city's first concert. His old viola teacher once had told Giulini's father that the young musician would never be a conductor because his elbows were too weak. But after seeing him direct the orchestra, he admitted he was wrong, Giulini said. In the years just after the war, Giulini led the RAI state broadcasting orchestras of Milan and Rome. The elderly Toscanini heard a Giulini performance and summoned him to his home. The two became friends, an important source of support for the budding young conductor. In 1951, Giulini took over as principal conductor at Milan's La Scala opera house. His 1956 "La Traviata" with the diva Maria Callas was memorable. He made numerous recordings with the major record companies, and won a Grammy in 1989. Giulini's wife, Marcella, died in 1995. They had three sons: Francesco, who was his father's manager; Stefano, a physician; and Alberto, an artist. A private funeral will be held Friday in the northern Italian town of Bolzano, where Giulini lived.

You won't find better performances on record than Giulini's when it comes to The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni (both on EMI label). I'll also add that his Bruckner 8th on DG is outstanding.

Cheers to a great artist.

	15-06-2005 20:17									#2
	Increase Your PM Length

Oh that's sad.

	15-06-2005 20:21									#3
	Suffering from ads?

He was 91 and lived a great life. So not so sad.

	15-06-2005 20:29									#4
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

That's the first time I ever heard of this man, and probably the last too

	15-06-2005 20:40									#5
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

See, now that's sad.

	15-06-2005 20:54									#6
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quote: Originally posted by Boris Godunov See, now that's sad.

I used to be able to name the conductors at the top 5 or 6 US symphony orchestras, but even then I could only name one opera conductor (wanna guess who?)

Now I couldnt even do that.

	15-06-2005 21:16									#7
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I'm curious what makes a conducter great. Is it the ability to convey what you want to the players, the ability to get them to do what you want they way you want, or the ability to know what pieces to choose and how they should be played with the ensemble you have.

All of my experience with conductors came in school situations where it was about being good but also about building knowledge.

	15-06-2005 22:22									#8
	Increase the size of your Attachments

How many times do you think he had to fight bullies as a child having the middle name of a female?

	15-06-2005 22:55									#9
	Inflate your Upload Space

I don't follow the conductor scene that much. The music itself is more important to me

	15-06-2005 23:08									#10
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Defining a "great" conductor is pretty subjective, and a lot of it is based on personal style and the specific sound they can draw from an orchestra.

Wilhelm Furtwangler is my personal favorite of all conductors on record. His greatness stems from the amazing intensity he brought to any piece he conducted, and his ability to bring out every voice in the music clearly. Every recording of his to which I've listened (all mono, usually live) has astounded me by bringing out aspects of the music I've never heard before. Each performance is unique--he never conducted a piece the same way twice, and he kept his orchestras guessing as to what tempi and dynamics he'd choose in a performance. So his interpretations all bear a very personal stamp and are not for the literal-minded.

He also abhorred lockstep precision, so you won't find such in his performances. He felt it made music mechanical and inhuman. One anecdote is that while leading a rehearsal with the Vienna Philharmonic (his normal orchestra was the Berlin Phil, which adapted to his idiosyncracies well), Furtwangler was stopped by the concert master, who requested a clearer downbeat for the start of the piece, as the orchestra was not coming in together. The maestro obliged, giving a crystal-clear downbeat, and the orchestra came in together with absolute precision. Furtwangler stopped them and said "No, that's awful!" and went back to his near-incomprehensible gesticulating.

The near-opposite to Furtwangler was Toscanini, who was his contemporary in Italy. Toscanini was a master of precision, and you will hear remarkably clean performances in his recordings. He tended to "Italianize" all of his music, so his recordings of Beethoven, Brahms and the like are much lighter and more transparent than the traditional Germanic interpretations. I personally find the "clipped" nature of some of these performances distracting, but there's no questioning that Toscanini has some awesomely good recordings--especially the Italian opera repetoire, with the Puccini being unbeatable.

Herbert von Karajan died in 1989 as the wealthiest classical musician ever, with a fortune of $200 million amassed. He was a "jet set" type of conductor, lots of splash and panache. This contrasted mightily with Furtwangler, who was so socially awkward it was painful (The Nazis played up a rivalry between the two to help bend Furtwangler to their will). Karajan was the quintessential "megastar" and had utterly no problem with a little pandering to popular tastes. Hence a slew of compilation recordings he made for public consumption of warhorses. Karajan tends to be a slow conductor who focuses on building a very dense, rich and spectactular sound. He also embraced modern technology quickly, recording in digital sound in its infancy. Legend has it that his insistence of recording the Beethoven 9th on a single compact disc is what prompted Sony to develop the 75-minute CD. I find Karajan uneven--brilliant in things like Wagner and Bruckner (but still second to Furtwangler), and not very good with Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart.

Leonard Bernstein was America's answer to Furtwangler, although he tended to be more concerned with precision. Some find his interpretations too "theatrical," but I think he had a wonderful knack for thrilling audiences. His biggest drawback is that, as he got older, he got slooooooooow. His 1980s Mahler 2nd is probably the slowest on record. This is interesting since in his young days heading the New York Phil, he was considered too fast in many regards. I think Bernstein was best with more modern music. He is considered by many to be the greatest Mahler conductor on record, and he was certainly responsible for a keen upsurge in Mahler's popularity with the general public. Sadly, his conducting of the more "classical" composers, esp. Mozart, is a bit of a mess.

The only truly "great" conductor in the same class as these still around is, IMO, Claudio Abbado. Definitely a brilliant musician, although some find his readings too "thick."

So you've got a lot of variety here. And there are few "great" conductors that I think are superficial hacks--Celibidache, Mehta, Levine, Ozawa, for example.