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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/arts/music/lorin-maazel-brilliant-intense-and-enigmatic-conductor-dies-at-84.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMedia&module=third-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
http://slippedisc.com/2014/07/hard-to-believe-lorin-maazel-is-dead/
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d
most recently by NY Phil, Pitts too I've heard.
I'm just as reliable a source as you'll find around here, BTW.
Just curious....just in case the whole vibe would be dying soon.
dee
;-D
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
The musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra weren't exactly fond of him....
I think you need to be vetted by Norman Lebrecht! ;-)
I was attending a Youth Concert yesterday afternoon at the Kennedy Center, when the conductor, Elizabeth Schultz, announced at the start of the performance that Lorin Maazel had passed only an hour before. There was a collective gasp from the audience. Ms. Schultz dedicated the concert to Lorin Maazel. The Youth Orchestra, in fitting tribute, played the Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah and Sheharazade with a passion and zest that I rarely hear from adult performers. Lorin Maazel must surely have been smiling from above.
Edits: 07/14/14
nt
Some of the best I've ever heard, and some of the worst. Hard to figure.
I've heard three performances of Maazel's Beethoven 7th.... One, at a concert in the fall of 1980, was the very best performance of this piece I've experienced. (It burned so hard in my memory, it's the performance I judge all others.) The other two, whose final movement was rushed and glossed-over, were awful..... Relative to the performance at the 1980 concert, sounded as if a totally different conductor conducted them.
He recorded a Tchaikovsky 4th with Cleveland as music director, it was stiff and hyper in character. Several years ago, he performed the work with NHK, if anything, erred on "laid back".... Much better read, however. (He got an incredible ovation after that one.)
Although it didn't seem to be a problem in his later years, I do think Maazel when he was with Cleveland tried to mimic Szell's style, and often came off as stiff and cramped.... (His Beethoven Ninth sounded as if a robot conducted it. His ending of "Und der Cherub steht vor Gott" in the final movement was held so long, he almost made choir members pass out.) But whenever he decided to ease up somewhat, he was a lot better.
A great talent with a bit of an oddball temperment is the way I'll remember him. One year the NY Philharmonic live televised season-opening concert featured the Beethoven violin concerto with Maxim Vengerov.The conductor (a violinist himself, of course) must not have been happy with some aspect of the soloist's approach at what was no doubt the single rehearsal. Incredibly, as the first movement begins in performance, it's obvious that Maazel is ignoring the soloist and forcing him to follow the conductor, a real no-no as you are well aware. After a few moments of embarrassing misconnection, Vengerov falls in line, staring at Maazel with wide-eyed amazement while he is playing.
The second and third movements proceed smoothly. I guess Maazel felt he had made whatever point he needed to make. But the first movement problem was so obvious even the reviewers caught it. I doubt Vengerov ever performed with him again. Edit: Nope, I was wrong, they did continue to play together after that 2004 concert, and actually did the Beethoven concerto together with the Israel Philharmonic in 2007.
Edits: 07/14/14 07/14/14
His Telarc Soundstream recordings are among my desert island CDs. First generation CDs but wonderful sound and performance. I never agreed with his critics.
Rimsky-Korsakov "Scheherazade" (London) ........
Maazel's performances of these two works were IMO the very best to make recording.
Wow I just heard him conduct the weekly NYP radio broadcast a few evenings ago.
Maazel created his own version of "Wagner Without Words" which is really quite good on BluRay. Much better than other attempts to cobble together orchestral highlights from Wagner, his version pulls them into a coherent piece rather than just a bunch of individual selections.The obit in the NYT is correct. I attended quite a few of his concerts with the NY Philharmonic when I lived in NY. They could be dry and sometimes too slow for my taste. But sometimes, everything would come together and the result would be quite magical.
I don't own a lot of his recordings, but his Sibelius set is pretty impressive.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Edits: 07/13/14
Perhaps his most famous recording. Also liked his Tchaikovsky 'Manfred' (Vienna) and Respighi disc (Cleveland)--also famous recordings.
Saw him once live, with the (I think) Orchestre National de France here in SF many years ago, from which I remember a very sensuous (and ultimately very loud!) Ravel 'La Valse'. Very exciting.
RIP.
Russell
Is there any higher rating than THAT?
I think that VPO Mahler cycle was quasi minimally microphoned too - at least in some of the symphonies.
There's also his NYPO "Harold in Italy" on DG Live Concerts (downloads - maybe on Spotify too), with former babe violist, Cynthia Phelps (not looking quite as fine these days as she did in the photo below, but you have to give credit where credit is due!).
For his fare well performance at the NY Philharmonic he offered Mahler's 8th symphony a few years back...Not an easy match for the the Avery Fisher Hall. It was spectacular.. The audience and myself cheered for fifteen minutes...A great human being with spiritual qualities and fighter for justice in all arenas but not the conductor of my choice. But that 8th was monumental and it completely surprised me..The singers and chorus went all out. A guiding and brave spirit is gone. And Nadine Gordimer a kindred and angelic spirit has passed this morning...
...and it's great!
Russell
Thank you! Not the same performance that I heard but exactly the same chorus' and singers...I hope I can find it at the CD/record shop at Avery Fisher...(not very able at down loads..GThank you again.
Checking the dates of my program...It is that performance...Thanks
Available at 24/44.1 from ProStudioMasters and (I'm sure) other download sites. (Haven't heard it myself.)
I saw him conduct a number of times when he was here in Cleveland. The performance that stands out in my memory is Das Lied von der Erde. Don't remember who the singers were--it was the orchestral performance that caught my attention throughout.
Maazel conducted the first symphonic concert I ever attended live - early in 71 with the SFS, Beethoven's Consecration of the House, Sibelius 5th symphony, Ravel's La Valse, and Bartok's Two Pictures for Orchestra. Later, while he was Music Director in Vienna, I attended a ballet evening at the Staatsoper where he conducted Daphnis & Chloe and Firebird - a wonderful evening. I agree with jdaniels that there aren't that many top list recording by him - I don't think he lived up to his early promise. Culshaw, for example, described him as a brilliant young conductor in his autobiography. Still - a shock.
In watching videos from the past two years, he appeared to be in decent health... He will be missed.
He really looked young for his age......
The Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet - yes there are others that many prefer, but I like this one.
Surely an entry from his 60s Sibelius cycle with the VPO. Richard Kaplan in Fanfare, picked his recording of the 3rd as his desert island choice.
Most likely the Ravel noted by jdaniels.
The man made a LOT of recordings....somebody was buying them!
and the rest of that cycle, too.
Otherwise, I can't say that any of his other recordings are tops for me, but still, not too many left for the Major Labels' '60's/'70's stable of artists. Sad in a way.Edit: I forgot his Prokofiev 5th with the Cleveland--he seems to have been "on" that day, and the recording team outdid themselves.
Edits: 07/13/14
I think these recordings of Maazel's are top list (in my book):
Porgy & Bess (complete)
Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (complete)
Sibelius: Symphonies (Vienna Phil)
Respighi: Pines of Rome, Roman Festivals (Cleveland)
Mahler 4 (Battle, Vienna Phil)
Mahler 9 (Vienna)
Fidelio (Vienna)
Puccini: Gianni Schicchi
Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (RSO Berlin); Rite of Spring (Cleveland)
Mussorgsky: Pictures, Night on Bald Mountain (Cleveland)
Ravel: Daphnis (Cleveland); L'Heure Espagnole & L'Enfant et les Sortileges
nt
Maazel's, at least for the Balcony scene.
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