Who is your Favorite Historical Conductor?

The tempo discussions by Mahgister are interesting.  I heard Ricardo Muti give a talk from the podium that must of have gone about 15 minutes before the start of a work where he essentially makes the same points.  It was difficult to understand him in the large concert hall, in his mixture of Italian and English and I remember thinking wouldn’t it be great to hear him give a master class in conducting and perhaps use a few examples.

  I have heard many people look at film of Furtwangler conducting, critique his beat as imprecise and approximate at best, and wonder how he achieved his results, with his supple ebb and flow.  He had to be the antithesis of George Szell, about whom his players would say “Even the spontaneity is rehearsed” yet Szell was reportedly a huge admirer of both Furtwangler and Toscanini.

Willem  Mangelberg?

I have only heard a few examples of him—Ein Heldenleben with the NYP and an Eroica with Amsterdam.  The Eroica sounded like a little crystal meth may be been injected into proceedings.

There is a good selection of Cantelli , both studio recordings and live concerts, on the Pristine Audio site. I particularly like the concert version of Stravinsky Chant of the Nightengale

Mengelberg is an interesting choice!  I recall reading somewhere that Mengelberg thought he could just make changes to Beethoven's scores because, after all, Beethoven was deaf, not to mention dead, and who would know better what would work than the conductor himself!  

My choice would be Furtwangler.  Just this morning we listened to his wartime live Bruckner 9th.  It is driven, ferocious, and transcendent.