Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I wonder if I should ask you to specify which orchestras they were bad
>with, or whether you're just suggesting consistent awfulness.
>
>In which case, I'll have to ask you to step outside, while Dave holds
>my coat....:-)

Alright Deryk, but let me warn you that I have a black belt in Tae Kwon do.
:-)

I grew up on Karajan recordings because my dad bought all those cds that
he made when the medium first went public.  It surely takes talent to get
the BPO to sound like a student orchestra.  I like his early stuff, but he
seemed to stop caring after the 60's and coast on autopilot the rest of his
career.  No one seemed to notice since everyone was convinced otherwise by
his charisma.

Ashkenazy doesn't excite me as a conductor or a pianist.  He seems to be
very talented and technically astute, but his musicianship comes off as
unconvincing and boring.  Not very faithful to the score, either.  In his
case, I was mostly thinking of the Concertgebouw - one of my favorite
orchestras so it's kinda personal.

Stokowsky rubs me the wrong way.  I find his style to be very superficial
and intrusive.  It seems to me that all the accusations made against
Bernstein seem more suitable for Stokowsky.  Yes, he did cultivate the
Philadelphia sound, but can this dog do any other tricks?

Rodzinsky does absolutely nothing for me.  I should listen to his Cleveland
recordings more, but the other recordings I've heard so far - I'd never
listen to them again.  I finally traded in his Shost 5 for Bernstein and
I was so happy to get rid of it.

Previn annoys me wherever he is, and he's conducted them all.  He's never
convinced me that he knows the score well.  I used to own a highly regarded
recording of Brahms 4 and the Academic Fes.  Ov.  Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!
He doesn't seem to know how to balance an orchestra at all.  His respected
recordings with the LSO - they sound so much worse than the recordings made
around the same time with Bernstein, Horenstein, et al.

Sawallich is also personal.  Muti's one of my favorite conductors and
Sawallich negates just about all the improvements that Muti brought to the
PO.  I don't like the way he balances the PO - a distinction from Previn -
Sawallich seems to know what he's doing - I just don't agree with the
approach.  He tries to make them sound like a European orchestra.  Ormandy
was guilty of the same offense, but I bought it when Ormandy did it.

I'm ready when you are.

Bob Yoon
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