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Boris Godunov
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Portland, OR
Aug 2001
time: 00:25
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It's a difficult question, because, IMO, no single conductor has been able to master every form of music. I wouldn't choose the same one for Wagner as I would Mozart or Bach.
I dislike Von Karajan in general, though he has good moments. He tends to be ponderously slow at the most inappropriate moments, he is atrocious at conducting Mozart or any Italian opera, and his lack of any coherent interpretation in many of his recordings is painfully obvious. He often conducts as if he is going measure to measure, rather than forming a complete musical statement.
For German symphonic music, I give the interpretation award to Furtwangler. No conductor on record has ever given more electrifying and revelatory performances of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, etc. Would that the recordings were in stereo sound! The passion this man had for his art more than makes up for is sometimes-spotty precision. Ok, sometimes his precision is awful. But he was capable of inducing these astounding pianissimos and crescendos from the BPO that I have never heard the like of in any other recordings.
For precision, you'd have to go with either Toscanini or Reiner. Toscanini is, however, not very Germanic in his conducting (take that as bad or good). He tends to have overly-clipped phrasing, which makes his Beethoven sound rather Vivaldi-esque. Still, you can't complain about the clarity of sound he gets or the precision. In fact, maybe too rigid precision at times. Reiner is a real treat, and is certainly Germanic (they didn't call him the Podium Nazi for nothing!). Unfortunately his recordings with the Chicago Symphony on RCA are far too dry in sound. One would like at least a little bit of reverb. Szell was the master of precision, but lacks almost any emotional pulse. However, his Brahms Symphony set on Sony Classical is justly famed. Abbado's are the best recordings of the digital age, though they sometimes suffer from digititis.
Kleiber is wholly remarkable at times, oddly inaccurate and inadequate at others. He actually conducts the Beethoven 7th's Allegretto wrong, incorrectly placing the grace notes.
In terms of opera, it again depends on the genre. For Wagner, Solti's Ring is unbeatable as a complete set, but Furtwangler is clearly is superior. Bohm gets honorable mention there. For Italian opera, avoid the German conductors. Furtwangler's Mozart is almost as bad as Von Karajan's. Giulini's recordings, while analog, are generally superior, though Solti leads Verdi quite well. Bonynge is also superb here, as are Muti and especially Abbado
Choral music is a more varied field, with superb older conductors like Klemperer and Bernstein being evenly matched with modern conductors like Solti, Previn and Abbado.
Early music and period music are the domain of folks like Neville Mariner and John Elliot Gardner. Gardner is particularly fine here. Just avoid his Beethoven symphonies.
As for an answer to the question, I voted for Furtwangler. His name just makes me giggle.
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11-02-2003 06:47
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ACK!
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