I know, there are different favorite conductors depending on composers for each of us (as if I had to name one for Mozart, it’s Currentzis, who meanwhile also is one of my favorites for Mahler).
But if you had to chose one who stands out even if he isn’t best for every composer?
For me it’s Celibdache. He has a kind of highest relaxing, quiet, enigmatic energy and tension in my perception, which puts one in a kind of trance to take the work he’s performing seriously. He somehow stands out for me.
Solti was extraordinary. He raised the Royal Opera to international levels in the 1960s and I heard him a lot with the London Philharmonic in the early 1980s at the Festival Hall. There were a few rows of seats behind the orchestra and watching him conduct face-on is something I will never forget, especially Beethoven. Never seen more energy. He lived in the next street to me and when I saw him walking down to Regents Park he was always muttering and shaking his head. Just a ball of energy.
It depends on the music - Tennstedt for Mahler, Haitink for Bruckner, Perahia for Mozart. It’s usually what you hear in your formative years. Bohm was the go-to Mozart man, not old enough for Furtwangler. I heard Mehta a bit, notably with the Berlin Philharmonic, Perlman as soloist.