More "top" lists

Originally published June 2, 2011

I've become attached to a blog by Kenneth Woods called "A View from the Podium," in which he discusses a number of topics (including a recent series on Mahler given this, the one-hundredth anniversary of the composer's death).  These are much more than Norman Lebrecht's short "sound bytes" on "Slipped Disc" (even though I'll admit that I follow those as well).  The BBC magazine announced in March a list of the 20 "greatest conductors of all time" which includes:

1. Carlos Kleiber (1930-2004) Austrian
2. Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) American
3. Claudio Abbado (b1933) Italian
4. Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) Austrian
5. Nikolaus Harnoncourt (b1929) Austrian
6. Sir Simon Rattle (b 1955) British
7. Wilhelm Furtwängler (1896-1954)
8. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) Italian
9. Pierre Boulez (b1925) French
10. Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005) Italian
11. Sir John Eliot Gardiner (b1943) British
12. Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970) British
13. Terenc (sic, actually, it's Ferenc) Fricsay (1914-1963) Hungarian
14. George Szell (1897-1970) Hungarian
15. Bernard Haitink (b1929) Dutch
16. Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) French
17. Yevgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988) Russian
18. Sir Colin Davis (b1927) British
19. Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) British
20. Sir Charles Mackerras (1925-2010) Australian

To say the least, this is a most impressive list of baton wielders, but one has to admit that it has it's shortcomings.  Despite the plethora of Hungarians who led American orchestras during the 20th century, only two appear on the list.  And only one Russian?  And four Brits?  And one American?  Hmm.  Well, Woods sets out to present his own order of things, choices that I have to admire because of its surprises:

From Part 1, the entire text with embedded video can be found here.

Furtwangler

1.  Wilhelm Furtwangler: "was the greatest musical storyteller ever to stand before an orchestra."
2.  Carlos Kleiber: "Just about everyone agrees that Kleiber was the best stick waver who ever waved a stick. He turns conducting into performance art in a really good way." (Of that I have to agree.)
3.  Eugen Jochum (!):  "Very much descended from Furtwangler, Jochum may not have had quite the elemental temperament, but his sense of rubato, while still incredibly daring, is perhaps more un-erring than even Furtwangler."  (A surprise for me, but my collection of his performances is limited.)
4.  Ferenc Fricsay:  "Every conductor and critic should carefully study the film of him rehearsing The Moldau with a so-so orchestra in Stuttgart before his death. He totally transforms that band, and gives the best performance of that piece you’ll ever hear."
5.  Dmitri Mitropoulos:  "One of the greatest musicians of the 20^th century, according to everyone I’ve met who knew him."

Part two:

Karajan:  Nazi sympathizer?

6.  Herbert von Karajan:  "will always divide opinion- he probably should. His political calculations and affiliations as a young many should make all but the most cynical person uncomfortable, but he was a major musician. At the end of the day, he led the greatest orchestra in the world for many decades.  There hasn’t been an orchestra that awe-inspiring or dominant since his death."
7.  Leonard Bernstein (and I love this description!): "What can you say? Nobody does more shit wrong than Lenny- he makes big, seemingly ego-driven errors of judgment quite often. However, there is so much he did that nobody has done better. Yes, the end of his Shostakovich is a shambolic mess, but the slow movement is far better and deeper than anyone else's, including all the Ruskies.
8.  Yevgeny Mravinsky:  "The only conductor Karajan considered a true equal. Best known for his Russian repertoire, especially Shostakovich, but his Bruckner is legendary in Russia. Gergiev calls it the most awe-inspiring music making he ever heard."
9.  Gunter Wand:  (and I celebrate his inclusion on this list.  His Brahms set with the North German Radio Orchestra is revelatory): "Watch the DVDs of his Bruckner performances with the NDR- it is a masterclass in everything- orchestral playing, showing what you really need to show, pacing everything perfectly."
10.  Takashi Asahina (who? and Woods seems to concur): "I didn’t even know about Asahina existed until after he died. Who knew there was another Furtwangler/Jochum in Japan all those years?"

Part three:

Beecham

11.  Thomas Beecham:  "Beecham excelled at what people like Jochum, Wand and Asahina fall short at- elegance, elan and grace."
12.  Charles Munch:  "Possibly the greatest hands ever, certainly gives Kleiber, Bernstein and Karajan a serious run for their money on the technique front."
13.  Adrian Boult:  "Quite possibly the most under-rated conductor ever. I’ve never heard a bad recording by Boult."
14.  Eugene Ormandy (the only one on this list I have experienced in person): "Critics hate Ormandy. It must be the first they teach at critic school- always work in an Ormandy slam into every article your write. Record collectors hate him, too.  I just don’t get it. The film of him looks pretty impressive- classical and classy conducting technique, not at all showy."
15.  Rafael Kubelik: "...he’s like a Czech Bernstein crossed with Furtwangler. Tons of mojo, tons of storytelling, rather less refinement."

And the final part (who is going to be left from the top 20?)

"Stoki"

16.  Leopold Stokowski:  "I really can’t believe Stowkowski didn’t make the BBC Mag list- his name and Mitropoulos were the two I was most surprised to see were missing . Asahina and Suitner are more connoisseurs’ conductors, but Stokowski was one of the giants of all time, both artistically and commercially. Are we just punishing him for his sins?"
17.  Otmar Suitner (huh?):  "Right up there with Adrian Boult and Jochum for most under-rated conductor of all time. Unlucky to spend his best years in Berlin in Karajan’s shadow."
18.  Vaclav Neumann:  "Back in the day, if you wanted to hear a whole range of cool and kickass Czech music, you had to search out the beautiful looking and sounding LP’s from Supraphon. In my youth, most of those were of the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Vaclav Neumann."
19.  Georg Solti (how could I have lived so close and never seen him conduct?):  "Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin during his tenure with the Chicago Symphony, Solit was like the neighborhood “world’s greatest” conductor. It was a completely accepted as a truism in the upper Midwest in those years that not only was the CSO under Solti the greatest orchestra in the world, it was probably the greatest orchestra in history. Imagine my surprise when my travels took me out into the wider world where opinions of Solti were far more mixed. He was certainly a polarizing figure- “screaming skull’ to some, a god to others. At the end of the day, few have ever done so many different things so well- Mahler, Beethoven, Mozart, Bartok and Wagner."
20.  George Szell:  "Szell is like Carlos Kleiber without the smile and the insecurity. A great, great musician, but would have been greater if he could have just let go a bit more of his need to control everything."

Look who's missing:  Toscanini, Tennstedt, Kondrashin, Koussevitsky, among many others.....More fodder for future posts.

Toscanini:  his exclusion would certainly piss him off!