Who is your Favorite Historical Conductor?
For discussion purposes I am limiting this to
1) Wilhelm Furtwangler
2) Arturo Toscanini
3) Bruno Walter
feel free to introduce others. I will be arbitrary and cut off Conductors who worked after the death of Leonard Bernstein.
Furtwangler and Toscanini died just short of the onset of the stereo era. They were however recorded with the best technology of the times, and the work of restoration technology of today has done wonders. Walter recorded until 1962 but perhaps his best work was done in the mono era.
Walter was renowned for his “humanity” Furtwangler for his near mystical ability to rechannel German/Austrian music, and Toscanini for his finely chiseled intensity
@mahler123 I remember a number of RCA and DG studio recordings of Furtwängler. Also, Warner released the complete studio recordings and it's a 55 CD box set. I'm thinking that would include the RIAS recordings. Anyway, that seems like a good amount to me. I'm unsure as to how many live recordings there are, I was thinking not a lot. I only know of the Salzburg Festival. the Lucerne Festival and a number of radio broadcasts. I don't know anything about the Music & Arts releases. Yes, I realize there aren't a lot of van Beinum releases. The Andante label issued a van Beinum set which very good. So what van Beinum RC recordings do you recommend? |
I have the Warner box. I am not saying that W.F. didn’t make studio rcordings, he made plenty of them, but most of the available recordings are either concerts or Radio Broadcasts. W.F. studio recordings are generally felt to be inferior as performances to his live concert recordings or Radio broadcasts. One of my favorite Furtwangler recordings is Bruckner Eight with the VPO from late 1944. I believe that there are at least two recordings from different days. One is the actual Radio Broadcast made with a very small audience, probably a few Nazi bigwigs, the day before the actual concert, which I believe was also recorded and subsequently both have found their way to CD. I have the one that is sans large audience and it is the most thrilling Bruckner 8 out there, and it really sounds good for that vintage. btw, the Furtwangler set to have is the DG SACD set, if you can find it.
Van Beinum--I haven’t listened to any of his recordings (except the odd bits that come on the radio) since the lp days. I believe the Eloquence Label put out a good collection recently
|
@goofyfoot , thanks. I found it on Qobuz and it does sound very good. Listening to his Brahms no.4 right now. I have the Music & Arts Beethoven and the Bruckner, both live. I believe some of these early recordings needed to be restored so not the best quality, but historically important. |
@lowrider57 Yeah, I can recommend the d'Orfeo label in general. I was at the record store today and we were talking about the lawsuit against MOFI. The context of the discussion centered around whether all analogue remastering is actually superior to having digital somewhere in the chain and we both agreed that digital technology is a massive asset. In other words, I'm so glad that recordings from that era are now as good as they are. Also, I'm surprised that the d'Orfeo label is on Qobuz! I'm going to switch from Tidal to Qobuz. |
