Who is your Favorite Historical Conductor?

Arnold Schoenberg wrote the following about Ervin Nyiregyházi: "...a pianist who appears to be something really quite extraordinary... I must say that I have never heard such a pianist before... What he plays is expression in the older sense of the word, nothing else; but such power of expression I have never heard before. You will disagree with his tempis as much as I did. You will also note that he often seems to give primacy to sharp contrasts at the expense of form, the latter appearing to get lost. I say appearing to; for then, in its own way, his music surprisingly regains its form, makes sense, establishes its own boundaries. The sound he brings out of the piano is unheard of... And such fullness of tone, achieved without ever becoming rough, I have never before encountered... as a whole it displays incredible novelty and persuasiveness. ...it is amazing what he plays and how he plays it".

When Schoenberg say here he is tempted to disagree at first with his tempi choices , he say in reality that the tempi used by E.N. are IMPREVISIBLE ONE born from the flowing of the music itself under his fingers like in an IMPROVISATION and they are a very convincing musical event at the end...

MUSIC COMMAND TIME not the reverse....

For me music is the oscillation of time, life is a crystal which  had learned to  master time with his own music...

A great conductor suppress the dictature of time upon us and deliver us with music...

I think that each great conductors and they are MANY, must be judged in some precise work from some composer...One by one...

Then there is no greatest...

But if you torture me to name one i will side with Valery Gergiev opinion and Ernest Ansermet opinion two great maestros in their own way ...

Furtwangler never directed symphonies with an EXTERNAL beat but with an INTERNAL pulse emerging spontaneously with the music itself... Valery Gergiev explain it well...

«Valery Gergiev: The most difficult thing in conducting is to avoid a mechanical beat. This endless search for a true tempo, the right tempo for every bar of music, and not just a single tempo for the whole movement, is something few conductors ever master. Few leaders will recognize, perhaps, that it is something difficult for them, but they will try to do it and compete with Furtwängler, and most likely they will fail.»

This also explain why some improvising jazz musicians are so great, or like the african youruba talking drummers, or the singing of the pygmies, they are not handicapped by the burden of INTERPRETATING with the right beat and an EXTEERNAL timing written music and more easily access to this spontaneous INTERNAL pulsating beat which emerge in each parts of the improvised unwritten music ...

it is the reason why TIME ITSELF OBEY MUSIC AND MUSIC DONT OBEY TIME BUT COMMAND IT ...It is evident with Furtwangler more than with most other maestros in written music...His interpretation is more like in jazz an irrepressible spontaneous SURGE...

By the way more than pure technical abilities it is the same for piano playing, you cannot master Lizst and Scriabin without mastering the timing flow of the music parts...it must be an internal timing coming from the music itself... most people compare pianist for their CLEAN sound or pyrotechnical ability, but it is the art of time coming from the music itself the supreme rule...

The fact that music command time is a mathematical discovery coming from Alain Connes works in non commutative geometry and his interpretation of the Zeta function related to quantum mechanic hilbert space operators algebras...very important and astounding work describing a source of variation deeper than time itself ... Music is example of this...

Listen to this interpretation where music command time , this pianist play like Furtwangler direct, none of them impose a tempo on the music but let the tempo surging from the music itself :

 If you have doubts about this pianist look what Schoenberg himself wrote and contradict him if you dare... 

For audiophiles, Fritz Reiner stands out from most of the "historical" conductors, whose recorded sound is often not the best. Reiner had the "serious" temperament of the 19th century-born Europeans, and lead the CSO in a rather "severe" manner. The results were very "muscular" sounding performances, which I like.

But what makes his recordings of particular interest to audiophiles is their sound quality. His RCA Living Presence LP’s (and CD reissues) are legendary for both performance and sq. The 1950’s "shaded dog" LP’s are not too hard to find (they sold well in the 50’s and 60’s), even in pretty good shape. After Harry Pearson and the writers at his Absolute Sound mag started touting their quality in the 1970’s, their price skyrocketed dramatically. Chesky started reissuing them on LP in the late-80/90’s, followed by Classic Records in the 2000’s. Look for the originals in your bin digging, they’re great!

@winoguy17 he was an engineer.

Casey Jones

And throw Stokowski into the mix.

I had in mind Conductors who worked in the pre stereo era when I made the thread, but that is a weird cut off point, because many of the greats of previous generations worked so long that they straddled both eras.  And I didn’t mean it to be comprehensive either, just thought those three would kick off a discussion.

I actually have seen Solti and Bernstein in concert, formative events in my listening history.  I remember seeing Barbirolli and Klemperer on TV.  So they all seem less remote than someone like Furtwangler or Mengelberg.

  Interpret the rules as you wish!

The big Bruno Walter box has really boosted my love for him.  I remember those recordings being available on the execrable vinyl of Columbia Budget label.  Hearing them freshly scrubbed is a revelation.

we should also add Szell, Ormandy, and Koussevitsky to the list

@bdp24 Hey -- I love Sir Adrian. And Lenny is quickly rising up the charts for me, not the least because, via Qobuz & Idagio at least, his New York Phil recordings are sounding spacious, balanced and pretty wonderful..

Fritz Reiner for some things, Leonard Bernstein and Adrian Boult for others. @mahler123: Is Georg Solti ineligible? Most of my fave Baroque conductors are still active.

Wilhelm Furtwangler and Sir John Barbirolli, without a doubt. Following those, Klemperer, Walter, Toscanini, and Celibidache.

I have lots of multiple recordings of standard repertoire on the shelves, but the conductor I usually turn to is Bruno Walter. Solti, Bernard Haitink and Neville Marriner get more than their share of attention, as well.. A concert I saw with Herbie the K and the Berlin Phil is still the best live performance I've ever been to in any genre (sorry Mr. Springsteen), but when it comes to classical music I'm just a straight-ahead guy..

Walter is my #1, in fact he’s one of my all-time favorite conductors. His interpretations are able to put me in a zen-like state, fully absorbing me in the music. Performances can be very emotional. I read that he would sometimes cry after a performance, the music must have brought his emotions to the surface.

I absolutely love Furtwängler’s Bruckner. This was my introduction to this maestro and I continued to explore his interpretations of other composers. He’s criticized for his changes in tempi which purists say were not the composers’ intent, but for me, this is what separates him from other conductors. My appreciation of Furtwängler began by listening to his late Beethoven stereo recordings. After Music & Arts remastered his early works, I realised these performances (recorded in mono) were superior. I have the three symphonies composed by Furtwängler, all modern day recordings. I took to Symphony #2 pretty quickly, I’m still working my way through the others.

It took me awhile to appreciate Toscanini due to the intensity and drive he applied to his symphonies. I was put off initially by his interpretation of Beethoven, preferring Walter and early Karajan’s style. But now I become transfixed by his mastery of the composition and that of his orchestra. His Beethoven and Brahms have a brilliant Germanic style.

BTW, Klemperer should be included in your list.