Celibidache: Der Taschengarten (Pocket Garden / Jardin de Poche) [Import]

Sergiu Celibidache (Artist, Composer, Conductor), Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: Sergiu Celibidache
• Composer: Sergiu Celibidache
• Audio CD
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B000066I6Z
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #715,435 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting to hear Celibidache's own composition, but it's hardly great music, June 16, 2010

By 

G.D. (Norway) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Celibidache: Der Taschengarten (Pocket Garden / Jardin de Poche) (Audio CD)

Whereas the compositions by conductors Furtwängler, Markevitch and Weingartner, say, are well served on disc, many are still surprised, it seems, to learn that Celibidache also composed. In addition to his lengthy orchestral suite Der Taschengarten he also has four symphonies and a piano concerto to his name, for instance. I would like to hear them, yet I cannot honestly claim that Celibidache the composer - at least on the evidence of this work - can claim to be on the level of Furtwängler, much less Markevitch. Taschengarten (the Pocket Garden) buzzes with life and is replete with details; it is a ornate, pointillistic score but with little or no focus on cumulative impact.

Apparently it grew out of conversations with children, but this is by no means children's music; the mechanistic flurry of activity isn't always easy on the ear and (if it makes sense) my immediate impression was to think that Celibidache relied on multifarious nuances of gray rather than colors. There is really not a lot of humor here, and the numbers that from the titles sound as if they should be jaunty or humorous or catchy, sounds rather otherworldly and disconcerting in the way they teem with strange activity but never goes anywhere.

And for us non-children? Well, I admit that I am less than sure; there are some really great details in here, and lots of subtle, quirky touches. But overall the music is very diffuse and static, and to a large extent devoid of the atmosphere I suspect Celibidache wanted to conjure up. It is wonderfully played, of course, and the sound is acceptable (although there is some distortion in certain climaxes) if not great for its time. A worthwhile experience, and certainly a disc of biographical or historical interest, but hardly a mandatory acquisition.