Greatest Living Conductor: Chailly or Masur?
Posted by: Todd A on 30 November 2000
Please help me decide. Both of these august gentlemen present music at its most emotionally revealing and intense. And the inspired virtuosity they exact from the orchestras they lead can bring one to tears.
Posted on: 30 November 2000 by Former member
Chailly is about my least favourite conductor still drawing breath and although Masur is considerably better, there are infinitely greater conductors still shaking a stick, namely:
Rattle
Wand
Abaddo
Kleiber
Davis (Colin)
Haitink
Previn
Cheers,
Kevin
Posted on: 30 November 2000 by fred simon
"Greatest" living conductor for what music? To my ears, no one surpasses Charles Dutoit (Montreal Symphony) for Ravel and Debussy.
Posted on: 01 December 2000 by Pete
But even at a broader level than Fred suggests, there are very different genres to play the game in. Will your "greatest conductor" for a kichen-sink and all symphony like Schosta 5 be able to deliver the goods on, say, "Spem in Alium" equally well? I have my doubts...
Pete.
Posted on: 01 December 2000 by Igor Zamberlan
You must be joking, mustn't you?
As for a Kapellmeister, to which category I ascribe Masur, I have to say that Wand is evidently superior interpretatively.
Chailly strikes me as being more a good orchestra trainer than a conductor.
I think that Carlos Kleiber, Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt are on another planet.
Second to those, Haitink, Abbado, Colin Davis, Michael Gielen....
Hell, I even prefer Daniel Harding to your two.
Igor
Posted on: 01 December 2000 by Todd A
Of course I was joking. Can anyone actually say that Masur is an exciting conductor? Masur? I think not. He can't even make Lizst's Second Rhapsody exciting for goodness sake. At least he's technically competent. Chailly is both boring and technically inept. Quite the combo.
Posted on: 12 December 2000 by Phil Barry
I think I have an acceptable Chailly recording. I don't listen to it, since I've heard 3 Chailly conducted concerts that were all in the bottom 5 (bottom 3?) concerts I've ever attended.
Todd, For crying out loud! Don't joke like this again! ;-)
Regards.
Phil
Posted on: 12 December 2000 by Former member
I like Chailly's Brahms 2, and his Schumann symphonies. His recording of Webern's Im Sommerwind is very nice, as is his Das Klagende Lied.
Ross
Posted on: 13 December 2000 by Former member
Last week I saw Rattle and Harnoncourt. These guys really are a worth considering. Harnoncourt really understands Beethoven & Dvorak. Rattle is in a league of his own. I really wish I was good enough to be in an orchestra conducted by him. He is in a league of his own, truely inspirational. I've never seen anyone like him.
Tom