Carlo Maria Giulini

A short while ago, Graham suggested that the last great conductor was Carlos Kleiber. Tempering descretion with valour I decided not to argue as to whether a certain conductor of Australian origin whose name I mention occasionally qualifies. However, I did mention Giulini, who died a little more recently than Kleiber. Rubio's comments on the Brahms thread, prompted me to raise him as a thread.

Giulini is a conductor whose work I don't know as well as I ought and whom I have only come to appreciate slowly. His Figaro was the first opera CD I ever owned (and one of my favourite opera recordings), but I didn't at first warm to it - I think because at that time I'd yet to see a good opera in the flesh and wasn't yet. I have since acquired his wonderful Don Giovanni too, both of which leave me wishing he had recorded more by way of Mozart operas.

My other main encouters with Giulini have been his Verdi. There is, of course, his Don Carlos which I have discussed extensive before (search for Don Carlos if interested, or see the link on the 'classical threads worth reading' thread) and even though I hanker after a French translation or a reading with the cut before the premier opening scene, it remains uneclipsed.

This (coupled with an interesting booklet about the Edinburgh festival chorus that was distributed last year, which noted they did the work with him often and, after Mackerras, he conducted them the most times), prompted me wonder about his Verdi Requiem. Again, I have discussed this elsewhere. But Giulini conducted it a great many times in the 60s and became closely associated with it. What a pitty then, that the studio recording, with the wonderful voice of Schwarzkopf, suffers so horribly from clipping in the louder passages. However, I recently picked up an EMI/BBC DVD which blew me away. Aside from a wonderful performance in musically terms, what struck me most was how clearly Giulini was in love with this work. Extended shots of the conductor didn't bug me in the slightest as they so often can (as I've said several times, I cannot recommend this disc highly enough).

The seem to have been doing Giulini proud - they have two Requiems available (one is the DVD performance on CD, the other a stereo Proms account I hope to acquire soon). They also have his Britten War Requiem. I know people who speak very fondly about the 1968 Edinburgh festival performance where Giulini conducted the Philharmonia and Britten took the chamber forces. The three soloists for whom the piece was written were also there. I met a lady at the festival last year who managed to sneak in to the rehearsals and was struck by how utterly Britten deferred to Giulini's judgement in a 'yes maestro, what do you want me to do with this bit...' sort of way. Sadly, the version the BBC taped comes from the next years proms and only Pears remains. And despite oddities on the tape it is a stunning reading that I feel eclipses the composer's own.

Recently, in a Schubert spending spree I ordered is great C major (thanks again to the BBC) and am greatly looking forward to its arrival.

But, it seems this is an extremely limited list of composers and I wonder what other works Giulini put on disc that are worth investigating.

In the gramophone obituary the described him as something along the lines of the 'gentle maestro'. I have an idea what they meant, in that he delivered great performances without getting in the way of the music, and even when, as in the DVD, the focus was all on him, somehow it was still all on the music.


regards, Tam