Customer Reviews

The Art of Conducting - Legendary Conductors of a Golden Era

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really enjoyed Teldec's DVD, "The Art of Conducting: Legendary Conductors of a Golden Era," which features excellent footage and information about conductors Wilhelm Mengelberg, Erich Kleiber, Charles Munch, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Sergiu Celibidache,and Evgeny Mravinsky with commentaries by Otto Edelmann, Yehudi Menuhin, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, various record producers and orchestra players whose names I cannot recall. Within the DVD are 3 short films by Wilhelm Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra filmed in Paris: Berlioz "Rackokzy March, from LE DAMNATION DE FAUST", Bizet's Adagietto, from L'ARLESSIENE; and Weber's OBERON Overture. I knew little about Mengelberg until seeing this DVD, and have none of his recordings, until now, so this is of great value. (There are some of his Brahms Symphonies now available in the Naxos "Historical" series).

The footage of Munch (Debussy's LA MER, Ravel DAPHNIS ET CHLOE, Berlioz SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE: IV and IV) and Celibidache is very interesting, as is the track devoted to Wilhelm Furtwangler and the Berlin Philharmonic playing Richard Strauss's TILL EULENSPIEGEL's MERRY PRANKS.

The black and white film is very clear, and mono sound very fine in the Furtwangler sections. Celibidache (another conductor about whom I know little, due to the fact he made no studio recordings after about 1950) is also interesting to watch: in the 1947 Beethoven EGMONT OVERTURE film; the 1964 Stuttgart rehearsal of Strauss (again) TILL EULENSPIEGEL; and the 1991 Munich concert of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony: I, which shows an elderly, white haired Celibidache with restricted movements, a huge contrast to his much more dramatic, athletic conducting style from the 1940s and 60s!

If you are interested in conductors of the 20th century, you will find this of value. There are some segments with less than good sound: esp. from Mravinsky in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia), but overall the sound is very good. I am impressed with the sound quality in the 1930s and 40s segments, and enjoy the thoughts of other musicians interspersed throughout this DVD. Highly recommended.

Worth the price if only for the rare footage of the great legendary Celibidache. Truly magnificent display of greatness and incite.

As one of the contributors says, even though the 5 conductors may use the same brush, the same paints, the same canvass, when they play the same piece, the way they spread the paint and present the colours would make 5 different paintings...

The analyses in this DVD are quite brief indeed. Moreover, some contributors like the dancer on Mravinsky, or the violinist on Furtwangler, or the timpanist on Munch are unheard of by most viewers. YET, their comments are all very much to the point. In contrast to "Great Conductors of the Past", we have one of two whole pieces here for each of Mengelberg, Furtwangler, Kleiber, Munch, Celibadache and Mravinsky, not just short clips. And for the last two we even have clips in colour with nice sound.

It is especially of interest to note when listening to the music here, as Menuhin remarked, how Mengelberg delayed the harmonics to preserve the rhythm breathing life into the piece. Likewise, to see how Furtwangler embodied the finest German tradition in his music. Or else, how well Erich Kleiber, a structuralist, turned a German orchestra into a Viennese one. Here, we have Blue Danube to bring home the point. Other contributors also pointed out the way deployed by Mravinsky to preserve the freshness of his interpretation and Munch "twists and changes" a piece of music (particularly French music) in performance from what he had rehearsed as if the piece has a life and mood of it's own. And of Course, we could also see with great delight the essence of Celibidache as a mixure of "A Scientist, a Gypsy and a Philosopher" (Barenboim)...

Viewers trying to figure out the art of great conductors obviously know about music, even if not exactly with the process of making music with an orchestra. Giving the viewers a headnote on the conductor to be followed by these conductor's finished product, i.e. a passage of music or two, illustrating the characteristics of their creators is as much as one would expect. Further elaboration would be unnecessary for those in the know and too boringly technical to the less involved. The passages selected are very illustrative to say the least.

However, the analysis on Mravinsky is not quite forthcoming enough. We are told, "We don't discuss about him... whether he is good or bad. He is god to us..."! (Fortunately enough, we have a separate EMI DVD with a good portrait on this great Russian conductor.) On the whole, viewers shouldn't expect the picture or sound to be too good, but they are certainly good enough to make the point, or even enough to delight some viewers, if not all.

This is a remarkable effort of patience and devoted commitment around the most relevant and prrestigious soloists of the baton, their styles, approachs, sharp comments and the powerful emotion to watch such emblematic directors.

The opportunity is magnificent to compare the new era respect the old masters of the past. In sum, an anthological DVD that deserves ak}ll your attention, due its trascendental importance and undeniable relevance.

Don't miss it!

This DVD was less than satisfying. Although some of the interviews are good, the DVD does not show technique or delve into the individual conducting styles of the various highlighted individuals. Archive footage sometimes ignores the conductor altogether and pans around the orchestra.

An interesting DVD for general information. A non-starter for the musically trained or someone actually looking for a resource for the art of conducting.

This two-hours DVD is a continue to "The Art of Conducting - Great Conductors of the Past" issued by Teldec some years before. To be compared it contains less interviews and more long video excerpts including some full performances such as R.Strauss by Furtwangler, Weber by Mengelberg and J.Strauss by Kleiber.
Also Celibidache and Mravinsky excerpts are informative and interesting.
Karajan, Cluytens,Talich, Scherchen are presented by very small excerpts and it is more marketing for label than information.

with the intention to continue (the financial success of?) the first film on conductors this second one brings more conductors and conducting time and even less commentary. the rich written notes somewhat make up for the lack of commentary in the film itslef. yet, again, as is the case with the first film, it could be greatly improved by adequate analysis.

While it does have less commentary, this is still a noteworthy presentation on great conductors of the past. Enjoyable and educational.