Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting , but the first one has spoilt us for good., December 21, 2000
First of all, it's better to be clear : the enthusiasts of the first video wanting "more of the same" are going to be somewhat disappointed, since director and overall approach of this one are different. In fact in this second release director Peter R. Smith chose to present a smaller number of conductors in greater depth. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and the results are entirely enjoyable, even though I can't help but thinking that the previous video was able to strike a perfect balance, showing us a conspicuous number of great conductors AND with countless in-depth insights. Also, the first video had kind of a "plot", telling the history of the conductor's art from the beginnings to the 70's, while this one has a much more episodic pace, working more like a compilation of conductors. As I said, another difference is the choice to present much longer performance excerpts. You get more music, which is good, but I'm not sure that this should be the purpose of a documentary like this. I would have preferred more "historical" conductors ( Monteux, Dorati, Giulini ) and / or an extension towards today's conductors, showing the changes and the evolution of the conductor's figure. Quibbles aside , though, there are many treasurable moments: I would not rate it "essential", but I wouldn't like to be without it either. The Mengelberg part (with a touching commentary by Haitink that reinforces my admiration for this wonderful maestro) is striking: it's a performance filmed in a huge movie studio in Paris , that was adapted to reproduce the main Concertgebouw hall just for the Dutch maestro !! Talking about commentaries, there's definitely not enough of them, and they're generally not as insightful as the previous ones (actually, from the first movie you'll find only Menuhin). Where are the likes of Stern, Knussen and Richard Mohr (the producer of so many glorious RCA Living Stereo releases) ?? We need these wonderful artists' insights to fully understand what lies behind what we see! Among the good things there's a long, marvelous part dedicated to the great and underrated Munch, showing a passionate and ironic musician. And I was astonished by the all too brief Andre'Cluytens snippet: conducting the Rhapsodie Espagnole he shows a technique which is a delight in itself, elegant and exhilarating at once. Erich Kleiber is absolutely gripping: not just an iron-willed martinet, but also a supremely elegant, concentrated musician. One understands why Carlos Kleiber ( by the way, why not a part about him ?) has been obsessed by his father's shadow for all his life. The Mravinsky part was also gripping, but for different reasons : this Stalinist icon radiates a dryness that I found frightening, but the performances show rivetingly fiery music-making: it's a contradiction that exemplifies well the the "mystery" of this controversial art. The technical level is generally oustanding, both in image and sound, the only exception being sound distortions in the 1991 "New World" symphony from Celibidache. Maybe it was my videocassette. Recommended, but more as a complement to the first one.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Geniuses remain,long excerpts without much comment, June 2, 2000
The reduce rating here refers strictly to the lack of discussion here. In contrast to the first installment of this series,where I found almost a steady stream of commentary and reflection on the art of conducting, you didn't mind the long excerpts. But there was also more excerpts of the actual conducting rehearsal process going over problem areas in the music, as when Sir John Barbirolli stops the orchestra countless times over a passage from Bruckner. On the first installment you felt the struggle as in the young Bernstein rehearsing the London Symphony. This excerpt was in the impassioned Largo from the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony, and Bernstein at one point just stopped, they were playing like an excercise rather than reflecting the weight of this century which is contained there. Here on this second installment there is commentary but it is so general as to be useless. There was not the intimacy of reflection I had found in the previous. And what does such long excerpts as here teach one, why not simply buy the recording. Everything vintage is now avaliable. With long takes of Erich Kleiber and Mengelberg I was left without any understanding of their art. With Celibidache and Munch,especially the latter conducting Ravel's Daphnis & Chloe,that you felt their art from mere gesture. Celibidache especially here with an excerpt from his younger days. He was a precise and impassioned man, and you felt this in the music.Furtwangler's genius also as Kleiber doesn't respond with mere long excerpts. Mravinsky was fantastic with the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony in rehearsal,the fifteen seconds of what he said was worth something,you had an example of how the practiced his art Also his Tchaikovsky Fifth which it was learned was rehearsed for days. Sorry we didn't get to see any excerpts from those rehearsals.
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