50 Best Conductors in History

[MylesBAstor]

Some great ones and great stories!

[Socrates]

Ah yes excellent list --The first LP(10") I ever bought (1958) was 1812 Overture Amsterdam Concertgebouw conductor--Otto Klemperer

Interesting to learn his son was Colonel Klink!

Soc

[rbbert]

The "bottom" 10-15 could be somewhat controversial. Some notable omissions include Jean Martinon, Neeme Jarvi, Leonard Slatkin, Rudolph Kempe, Valdimir Ashkenazy, probably some I can't come up with off the top of my head

[Beaur]

These lists are put out for conversation. No matter how many comprise the list there will be some omissions. Also, I am wondering how they evaluated the conductors from pre recording days?

[MylesBAstor]

Absolutely!

[MylesBAstor]

The "bottom" 10-15 could be somewhat controversial. Some notable omissions include Jean Martinon, Neeme Jarvi, Leonard Slatkin, Rudolph Kempe, Valdimir Ashkenazy, probably some I can't come up with off the top of my head

Even a top 10 would be controversial. Not the least of which is that some conductors specialized and were known for their performance of certain composers.

For example:

Reiner
Bernstein
Stokowski
Monteux
Koussevitsky
Furtwangler
Szell
Walter
Haitink
Davis

The biggest glaring oversight for me was Dorati.

[rbbert]

I would think Celibidache would be in anyone's top ten, Myles; if you are not more familiar with his work I would suggest becoming so... Dorati is another significant oversight

[MylesBAstor]

👍

[metaphacts]

Myles, I was fortunate to hear Celibidache at Carnegie with Harry. As I recall, NY was quite abuzz for the event.

[astrotoy]

Of course, limiting to 50 means many worthy conductors will be omitted. Harder to judge conductors who haven't reached their prime. Including Dudamel but not Andris Nelsons, for example.

A few omissions from those who have a significant recorded legacy - Ansermet, Joseph Krips, Leinsdorf, Previn. I am particularly fond of Clemens Krauss for his 1953 Bayreuth Ring. Erich Kleiber, who died fairly young, like his son. Ataulfo Argenta, Istvan Kertesz, Guido Cantelli all died quite young, but left impressive discographies.

We don't have recordings of many great conductors in their prime. According to historical writings, Gustav Mahler and Hans von Bulow were two great conductors.

Perhaps if this list is redone in 50 years we will have some fine female conductors on the list. We didn't even have women in most major orchestras until fairly recently.

Larry

[rbbert]

I thought also of Ansermet and Kertesz since my last comment above.

[Guest]

Was that 50 - it didn't seem like 50. These lists will never satisfy everyone, but they can be interesting.

Wrt Celibdache - he did make it.

I was happy to see Ferenc Fricsay and Loren Maazel on the list.

Some who are Missed include: Andre Cluytens (Beethoven, Ravel), Okko Kamu (Sibelius, Scandi), Kurt Masur (Beethoven, Mozrt, Brahms), Ivan Fischer (Mahler, others), Ansermet - really?, of course Antal Dorati, Though chamber music, I might be tempted to add Charles Munchinger.

Never heard of Antonio Pappano. Nice thread to read people's input.

[astrotoy]

Was that 50 - it didn't seem like 50. These lists will never satisfy everyone, but they can be interesting.

Never heard of Antonio Pappano. Nice thread to read people's input.

Conductors who did mostly opera are generally less well respected. Pappano and Levine are two that were included. I've seen Pappano live with the Royal Opera Convent Garden (he is also on quite a few DVD's of operas). Tulio Serafin who led La Scala for many years was not. Of course there were conductors who did a lot of opera, but were best known for their orchestra conducting - Karajan, Toscanini, and Barenboim are three on the list.

Soviet era conductors are not on the list except for Mravinsky and Gergiev (who is really post Soviet era and led the LSO until very recently). I'm thinking of Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Yevgeny Svetlanov. They both recorded extensively for Melodyia. I have many of their recordings by way of the licensing agreement that EMI had with Melodyia. A third Soviet era conductor was Kiril Kondrashin who fled to west late in his career, but died a few years later of a heart attack in his mid-60's. He conducted Cliburn in the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto at the Tchaikovsky competition and recorded it with him, I think still the best selling single classical album of all time.

For early music, including choral works, my college schoolmate, William Christie, should be considered. He founded Les Arts Florissants in Paris. Also for his work on Bach, Maasaki Suzuki who found the Bach Collegium of Japan, famed for their complete recordings of the Bach Cantatas and others of his works. Another specialist is Nicolas McGegan whose Philharmonia Baroque recordings are held in wide regard. We have seen all three of these in recent years.

Larry

[Dave Clark]

Copper and silver are really good conductors.

[MylesBAstor]

Conductors who did mostly opera are generally less well respected. Pappano and Levine are two that were included. I've seen Pappano live with the Royal Opera Convent Garden (he is also on quite a few DVD's of operas). Tulio Serafin who led La Scala for many years was not. Of course there were conductors who did a lot of opera, but were best known for their orchestra conducting - Karajan, Toscanini, and Barenboim are three on the list.

Soviet era conductors are not on the list except for Mravinsky and Gergiev (who is really post Soviet era and led the LSO until very recently). I'm thinking of Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Yevgeny Svetlanov. They both recorded extensively for Melodyia. I have many of their recordings by way of the licensing agreement that EMI had with Melodyia. A third Soviet era conductor was Kiril Kondrashin who fled to west late in his career, but died a few years later of a heart attack in his mid-60's. He conducted Cliburn in the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto at the Tchaikovsky competition and recorded it with him, I think still the best selling single classical album of all time.

For early music, including choral works, my college schoolmate, William Christie, should be considered. He founded Les Arts Florissants in Paris. Also for his work on Bach, Maasaki Suzuki who found the Bach Collegium of Japan, famed for their complete recordings of the Bach Cantatas and others of his works. Another specialist is Nicolas McGegan whose Philharmonia Baroque recordings are held in wide regard. We have seen all three of these in recent years.

Larry

You could say the same thing too about Willi Boskovsky on Decca and his dance, waltz, etc. music.

[MylesBAstor]

Copper and silver are really good conductors.

Yes they are renowned for their interpretation of heavy metal music.

[MylesBAstor]

We were listening to Carlos Kleiber's performance of Beethoven's Sym. #5 today. In the course of our listening, a question arose about how long he lived and while looking up that info came up with this list of the greatest conductors. Of which he is listed as numero uno despite his relatively small number of efforts relative to other conductors.

[Kingrex]

This is interesting in that I have always liked classical, but never got to understanding the conductors role. Only this last Christmas I was surfing Spotify and I heard a recording of the Nutcracker by the Tabilisi Orchestra. So much better than the Philharmonic I was use too. I was thinking it was the orchestra that mattered, not really keying in on the man with the wand. Frighteningly I could not tell you a single conductors name. I am still trying to work my way out of the Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Vivaldi rut. I'm still trying to find composers I like. Myles link is interesting in that it drills down with the conductors to recommended music. A new way to search and learn. Thanks

[Guest]

This is interesting in that I have always liked classical, but never got to understanding the conductors role. Only this last Christmas I was surfing Spotify and I heard a recording of the Nutcracker by the Tabilisi Orchestra. So much better than the Philharmonic I was use too. I was thinking it was the orchestra that mattered, not really keying in on the man with the wand. Frighteningly I could not tell you a single conductors name. I am still trying to work my way out of the Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Vivaldi rut. I'm still trying to find composers I like. Myles link is interesting in that it drills down with the conductors to recommended music. A new way to search and learn. Thanks

First among many things, the conductor is the orchestra's clock.

[JCOConnell]

not only that, hes the mixing engineer.

[Kingrex]

In a Opera, who is the controlling member? Lets say Pavarotti is singing. Who decides the orchestra layout, tempo etc. Also, how much control of the actual orchestra musicians does the conductor have. Can he hire and fire members, or is that a function of a board?