Nick Perovich <[log in to unmask]> writes about the art of conducting so that tempi seem to fall naturally: >Furtwaengleris not the only example, but he's surely a good one, of a >conductor achieving all of these with very fluid tempos. To take a couple >of examples, listen to the cumulative effect over fairly long stretches of >the fourth movements of just about any Furtwaengler performance of Brahms's >First or Beethoven's Ninth... ...or, for that matter, to Celibidache, disciple of Furtwaengler's, doing Brahms 1. I'm referring to the performance as part of a cycle of Brahms symphonies brought out by the Deutsche Gramophone as a 1999 reengineering of mid-70s recordings. These were conducted by Celi along with the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra. Celi's Brahms 1, I find, handles everything just so--even an orchestra that otherwise classified as no more than Good Provincial. Celi must have rehearsed the bejesus out of them. The tempi here are characteristic of the pre-Munich Celibidache--brisker, less meditative than his later pace. (The side clocks in at about 47 minutes; he used to take rather more in Munich).The only trouble with the set is its expense; I haven't seen it cut-priced anywhere hereabaouts. Denis Fodor Internet:100766.2076@compuserve