If you had to name one favorite conductor

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.

Mozart > Neville Marriner?

Ahdunno.

1 Like

I like Von Karajan as I haven’t found anything I didn’t really like in all the works I’ve heard.

Copper

4 Likes

Ah you beat me, lol

3 Likes

Eugene Ormandy. The unique sound he achieved in Philadelphia has always appealed to me.

3 Likes

Sir George Solti

4 Likes

Charles Munch

1 Like

Jean Sibelius

Zubin Mehta

2 Likes

Seiji Ozawa and Eliahu Inbal

1 Like

Andre Previn.

2 Likes

Another vote for Solti. Put my beloved CSO in the top echelon of the world’s great orchestras. His legacy here in Chicago borders on legend.

1 Like

One for Barenboim.

1 Like

Thanks all! Even more interesting would be…why?

And where’s ELK?

1 Like

von Karajan, then Bohm and Furtwangler.

1 Like

Günter Wand. Very balanced in Tempo and very straight forward with Bruckner Recordings until the mid 90ies …

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.

2 Likes

Carlos Kleiber for Beethoven.

2 Likes

My vote:
Frank Zappa!
“The Present Day Composer…Refuses to Die”
( I was waiting for Bootzilla to nominate FZ, but I just could not hold back)