Re: Screw Mengelberg's Beethoven

On Mon, 8 Jul 2024 9:31:44 +0000, Zionazi wrote:

Another revision: Screw Mengelberg's Beethoven.
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The best Beethoven conductors are: Furtwängler and Celibidache.
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Fav Beethoven symphony recordings:
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1) Furtwängler
2) Celibidache, Furtwängler
3) Celibidache, Furtwängler
4) Celibidache, Furtwängler
5) Celibidache, Furtwängler
6) Celibidache, Furtwängler
7) Found no real connection with this symphony yet, hence no favs.
8) Celibidache, Furtwängler
9) Celibidache, Furtwängler
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*It should be noted that I have not yet decided which Furtwängler
versions I prefer, wrt Celibidache it's the EMI cycle I'm referencing.
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*Mengelberg is good, much better than all/most other conductors in much
of the material, but I feel that his tempo-variations and often also his
idea how to phrase things (3rd movement (and possibly other movements
of) symphony 5, 3rd movement (and possibly other movements of) symphony
6, 1st and 2nd mvoement (and possibly other movements of) symphony 9
etc) falls behind what Furtwängler and Celibidache do -- I have grown to
love the outbreaks of Furtwängler. Actually Furtwängler was - years ago
- my favorite Beethoven conductor, the first one I listened to
frequently... now he is it again, alongside Celibidache (who seems to
have been influenced quite a bit by Furtwängler in his approach to
Beethoven symphonies (or rather, his general approach (maybe especially
in his later years)).
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*Erich Kleiber, Carlos Kleiber and Karajan (while likely better than
some/many others) really are quite overrated in Beethoven imo... they
tend to speed things up way too much - Mengelberg is far superior in
most cases here, his phrasing rarely feels forced and hectic as opposed
to the Kleibers (compare for example Symphony 6 movement 3 by Mengelberg
and Carlos Kleiber (C. Kleiber's 6 really sucks)).

You are running out of konduktors really fasy!
If you paid attention to the Yak Competition
Rudolf Kempe won the Grand Prize with the
Dresden Staatskapell:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTtTbeCSHU1W4AlLOuFegkDDHfSJQfbi_
Cheers!