Anything you want to know about Celibidache?

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on February 21, 2014 at 16:13:22

I'm in the middle of a series of concerts (mostly private) with bassoonist Friedrich Edelmann and his wife, cellist Rebecca Rust. (A link to the announcement of our concert last Saturday is below.) Friedrich was the principal bassoonist in the Munich Philharmonic from 1977 to 2004 - that's a span which includes the entire time that Sergiu Celibidache was the conductor in Munich and also includes the five years when James Levine was the conductor there. (Unfortunately, he started just a year or two after Kempe's tenure in Munich.)

Anyway, both Friedrich and Rebecca speak in the most glowing terms about Celibidache - of course referring to him as "Celi". What they've said is consistent with other commentary I've read about Celibidache, e.g., that he really taught the orchestra to play beyond the notes (not that other conductors don't/didn't encourage that too - most of them anyway!), or that the orchestra's quality and ability to get to the core of the music improved markedly during his time there. Although I had some of the single CD releases in the EMI series of Celibidache/Munich recordings, I recently (on the basis of my meeting and performing with Friedrich and Rebecca) obtained the boxed set reissues which I'm working my way through now:

BTW, these sets (10-14 CD's in each set) are now VERY inexpensive through Amazon re-sellers. As stated in many reviews of this series, these recordings are variable, but, aside from some Sony videos, they're now our only record of Celibidache's music making as principal conductor in Munich, since he refused to make studio recordings. At their best, they're WAY on the edge of interpretive risk-taking (invariably on the slow side of things), but they can be wonderfully convincing (as I remember from a live performance I heard them give in SF of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony - Celibidache's (in)famous 85-minute romp through that work!). Another fun fact (which I've brought up in a couple of previous posts) is that Celibidache's performance of Debussy's "Nuages" is exacly twice as slow as Paray's! In the Brahms German Requiem, Celibidache manages even to out-slow Mr. Excitement (Giulini!) in every movement except one (where their timings are the same). Whatever you think about him, he was definitely a one-of-a-kind!

Also (per the subject of this post), if you have any questions for Friedrich about "Celi", I'd be glad to relay them for you.

http://www.davisenterprise.com/arts/enjoy-an-evening-of-clas (Open in New Window)

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Topic - Anything you want to know about Celibidache? - Chris from Lafayette 16:13:22 02/21/14 (22)

RE: Friedrich Edelmann and cellist Rebecca Rust... - Ivan303 19:00:48 04/20/14 (0)

RE: Anything you want to know about Celibidache? - Todd Krieger 20:41:12 02/22/14 (1)

RE: Anything you want to know about Celibidache? - Chris from Lafayette 23:44:47 02/22/14 (0)

For my money, his is the best German Requiem, despite poor sound. - John Marks 06:25:02 02/22/14 (11)

It IS the best, and IIRC only 60 minutes! NT - Poles Apart 21:42:06 02/22/14 (1)

Seems to be on Spotify - Chris from Lafayette 22:11:28 02/23/14 (0)

Haven't heard that one - Chris from Lafayette 12:38:59 02/22/14 (8)

How about this factoid: By my guess, at least half of Brahms' output was vocal or choral - John Marks 13:46:45 02/22/14 (7)

Brahms's choral music is the apex of his achievement as a composer IMHO - Chris from Lafayette 15:05:52 02/22/14 (4)

Ironically, I was unaware until picking up Blomstedt's late London CD w/SFO - jdaniel@jps.net 22:29:01 02/23/14 (1)

For double the irony... - John Marks 06:54:29 02/24/14 (0)

My personal choice for the 'apex'... - C.B. 17:52:55 02/22/14 (1)

Alas, I mostly know just the Busoni transcriptions. . . - Chris from Lafayette 23:38:20 02/22/14 (0)

And the answer is... - C.B. 14:47:36 02/22/14 (1)

At one point, IIRC, he was in charge of a girls' choir. - John Marks 08:51:00 02/23/14 (0)

RE: Anything you want to know about Celibidache? - Amphissa 20:22:47 02/21/14 (4)

RE: Anything you want to know about Celibidache? - edelmann@friedrichedelmann.com 02:54:06 04/20/14 (0)

Update - they weasled out of the answers day before yesterday ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 12:07:27 03/01/14 (0)

Great Questions! - I'll bring up those subjects - Thanks! [nt] - Chris from Lafayette 23:37:52 02/21/14 (0)

I suppose most serious stage actors would say the same thing... - Ivan303 20:28:13 02/21/14 (0)

I have the DG set. - srl1 19:14:40 02/21/14 (1)

Yes - I have the DG sets too and like them [nt] - Chris from Lafayette 23:35:27 02/21/14 (0)

Anything you want to know about Celibidache?

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