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The Art of Conducting: Legendary Conductors of a Golden Era


	Producer	NVC ARTS

Barnes & Noble
This fascinating and essential second volume in the Art of Conducting series differs from its predecessor (Great Conductors of the Past) in that it concentrates on fewer conductors, most of whom had little exposure in the U.S. After an opening segment that includes some extremely rare and all-too-brief newsreel clips of Herbert von Karajan, Václav Talich, André Cluytens, and Hermann Scherchen, the conductors are seen in rehearsals or performances of extended excerpts or complete works. Wilhelm Furtwängler, his normally floppy beat replaced by clear, precise gestures, conducts a wonderfully fleet-footed performance of Richard Strauss Till Eulenspiegel, unfortunately marred by a two-minute ballet insert of shockingly bad taste. In Johann Strauss Blue Danube, Erich Kleiber, known primarily for his clean-cut approach to Mozart and Beethoven, transforms the Berlin Staatskapelle into a chorus of Viennese hedonists, while arch-Romantic Willem Mengelberg draws a most gorgeous sound from his Concertgebouw Orchestras string section in Bizets LArlésienne. It is instructive to see how all three conductors basically restrained podium gestures generate completely different musical results. By contrast, Charles Munch, music director of the Boston Symphony in the 1950s, whips that most elegant of orchestras through frenzied performances of Berlioz, Debussy, and Ravel. ("With the smile of the devil," as BSO timpanist Vic Firth tells us in his commentary.) Romanian iconoclast Sergiu Celibidaches main contribution is a fiery 1947 performance of Beethovens Egmont Overture, filmed with the Berlin Philharmonic in the symbolically charged setting of a bombed-out building. Yevgeni Mravinsky, champion and friend of Prokofiev and Shostakovich during his 50-year tenure at the helm of the Leningrad Philharmonic, is observed at the age of 80 rehearsing Tchaikovskys Fifth Symphony; the camera lingers for a seeming eternity on his implacable face, only to suddenly reveal the most expressive hands in the business, running the gamut of gestures from prayerful embrace to angry fist. Legendary Conductors of a Golden Era is a definite must for all who those who love and/or perform orchestral music. Howard Goldstein

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