Lakshman Joseph De Saram writes:

>Dear list, anyone for a discussion on the relative merits of Celibidache
>and Karajan.  And where the BPO and classical music in general would be
>now if Celibidache compromised and stayed on as director of that great
>organization in Berlin.

Celi and Karajan weren't all that different.  I experienced both of
them at the start of their Berlin careers after the end of World War II.
And, true, at the time their personalities did differ: Celi was more of
the flaming bohemian, Karajan more the cool operator.  But in music the
thinking at the time of the both of them was rooted in the tradition
personalized by Furtwaengler, foremost, and, I thought, also of von
Benda,if only to a lesser degree.  Both were demanding and scrupulous
rehearsers (the DG disc of Celi screeching the Stuttgart Radio Symphony
into shape for a proper rendering of Brahms 4 is a fun token of this);
both were civil, even courtly, off the podium and overbearing on it.
Neither had much patience for compromise but, for that, a great deal for
self-assurance.  When it came to obduracy Celi outstripped even Karajan on
the strictly musical side of things--he even indulged himself the hauteur
of disdaining opera, and recording--while Karajan outplayed Celi, hands
down, in the key of $ major.

I became addicted to Celi while he was working here in Munich.  For a span
of over fifteen yeaars I attended his performances and rehearsals.  It was
an experience that defined classical music for me.  But I did keep up with
Karajan while I lived in Berlin and Salzburg is, after all, only a long
hour's drive from Munich.  I also was privileged to experience Karajan
doing opera in Vienna, invariable yielding unforgettable spectactles.

Both Celi and Karajan were magnificent in perfomance.  Prodigious
memories helped, no doubt, but there were styles of musicality that each
of them affected, and of which I cherish, cherish, cherish the memory.  I
think, though, there was, overall, more Celi in Celi's music, more rubato,
a distinct technique in achieving special color; in Karajan's I always
sensed a greater commitment, a deeper fidelity to the composer.  When Celi
rehearsed in Munich, the orchestra was forever pencilling Celi into the
score.  There was less of that, I observed, with Karajan--no matter whether
he was conducting the Vienna or Berlin orchestras.

The newer breed of star conductors isn't anything like either one of them
(Barenboim may be something of an exception).  I miss them both very much
(and take not all that much comfort from their recordings; they were
radically different, greatly better in performance than in
transcription--at least to my ear.)

Denis Fodor                     Internet:[log in to unmask]