How much does the Conductor affect the performance of classical music?

The article appeared in The $ensible Sound magazine about a year ago, but I cannot tell you exactly which issue. I'll recap it VERY briefly for you here.

As a combination of the best performance and sound, I chose Solti's 1972 CSO recording, primarily because the vocal/choral performances outshone all the others. My second favorite was a Szell/Cleveland but I do not recollect which one (sorry, I gave all of the CDs to the local library so I cannot refer to any of these individually; the article itself is no longer available to me since the backup drive on which it was stored has since gone south.).

My LEAST recommendable was the recent Vanska/Minnesota Orchestra release that I considered completely devoid of any solemnity.

Although I concur with the comments about the various Furtwangler recordings, I chose not to include this one in the survey. I had as one of the criteria that the recording must be in stereo.

 

Thanks for the summary. The Vanska is well recorded but not very moving.

 

I should also add that during this time I participated in a thread over at the audio asylum. You might want to search their music archives, with sgb (i.e. same as here) as one of the selection criteria for the forum member and including 'Beethoven' for the other.

 

Thanks very much for this info. I am fairly certain that Szell only recorded this work once with the Cleveland orchestra.

 

Exactly. Think of it this way: the orchestra is the instrument and the conductor is the player. Tempo, balance, dynamics, intensity, are the responsibility of the conductor.

 

I think that's correct. It was recorded in 1961 and has been the standard Szell/Cleveland 9th within the Columbia/Sony family.

 

This is not an answer or so, but for some reasons there are and have been many very good and highly regarded Conductors from Finland …

… for being such a small nation.

 

Like in F-1 too . . . .

 

Top quality in so many fields

If you think so … But Kimis driving this year has not been so great.

Besides, you have the worlds greatest wines in France.
No questiona about it.

And that comes to many other things as well.
I French cars!

And ofcourse the best rally driver ever: Sebastian Loeb!

 

I don't think Fjelstad is from Finland but he is definitely Scandinavian and extremely good. If you can find a copy, look for his somewhat famous recording of some of the Peer Gynt Suites that is coupled with an even more famous recording of the Grieg Piano Concerto with Clifford Curzon (I believe) on piano.

 

Kimi's not doing so well this year, but in the recent past, Finland has had a disproportionate number of F-1 drivers.

No argument about the wine.

 

The French wines I can agree with, but after 2 Peugeots I can't quite accept their cars.

I DO appreciate the fact that the French know how to provide electric power to their countrymen so efficiently, though.

 

From Scandinavia

Øivin Fjeldstad (2 May 1903—16 October 1983) was a Norwegian conductor and violinist who led the Oslo Philharmonic from 1962 to 1969. (From wiki)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Øivin_Fjeldstad

These guys are all from Finland:

Leif Segerstam
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Osmo Vänskä

 

This is the album I was thinking of:

http://www.amazon.com/Grieg-Peer-Gy...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1223767603&sr=1-1

 

And let us not forget Robert Kajanus--or his friend and colleague Jean Sibelius, who, although more celebrated as a composer, also conducted.