Orchestras

I enjoy the work of quite a few orchestras.  Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and the Cincinnati Pops.  I enjoy them all for very different reasons.  The Chicago Symphony has a wonderful brass section.  The Montreal Symphony has a wonderful ensemble sound with plenty of depth.  Vienna and Berlin play very well.  Boston Pops for obvious reasons; they are everything John Williams.  

If I had to choose a favorite, it would be the Cincinnati Pops with Erich Kunzel at the helm.  There were almost exclusively recorded by Telarc back in the day and their recordings are exquisite and natural.  They didn't do a lot of process with their recordings.  They are pure.  Here's the thing with Cincinnati Pops - they enjoyed playing the music they recorded.  I can feel their enjoyment through the reproduction of their sound.  Kunzel had an exquisite command of tempo.  Quick, fast, slow, accelerandos and retards.  He led the orchestra with a bold musical ideas.  His ideas combined with their sound is amazing.  Every one of there cds are great regardless of the genre.  The pops could be extremely athletic while being controlled and refined.  A joy to listen.

I guess that brings up the topic of conductors.  I've have one recording of the Rochester Pops under the direction of Erich Kunzel.  It is another exquisite recording on par with his work at Telarc.

When I first started enjoying classical music, I thought the Chicago Symphony under the direction of George Solti was amazing.  Later in life, I think of his work as being good but not great.  If you want great Solti, listen to the work he did with the Vienna orcherstra.  Athletic and commanding performances.  As his career went on, his performance were text book good.  Nothing about them was amazing.  Nothing tickled the ear or the soul.  Just solid readings of the score lacking imagination always played safe.  Boring.

Charles Dutoit at Montreal is a perennial favorite of mine.  Lots of heft and power to his work.  The ensemble sound; the balance of the orchestra with just enough of everything to appreciate the wonderful playing and exciting interpretations.  Always tipped just a hair to the bass voices of the orchestra.  His interpretation of the Planets is one of the best I've heard.

Not discussion of conductors is complete without mention of the great Herbert von Karajan.  If you ask me he was one of the best.  Interpretations second to none.  Why?  Because he reinvents familiar works that have been heard many times and puts his own spin on the phrasing.  There is something different about his interpretations that breathe new life into works I've heard numerous times.  Take Dvorak's symphony 9 the new world symphony.  George Solti is one of the gold standards.  Listen to Karajan and he plusses the work and takes it to another level.  Invigorates it with new life.  Same with the Beethoven symphonies.  He saw music differently than all of his contemporaries.  I don't quite know how to express what he does different with the same notes on the page that everyone reads - but this guy's secret sauce was in his interpretation and phraseology taking notes on the page and invigorating how they fit together and how one ideas or phrase flows to the next.  Karajan was a giant in the conductor world.  Always was and always will be.

There are lots of videos on the web with Gustav Dudamel.  I don't particularly enjoy anything he does.  His rehearsal are interesting to watch because he sings and grunts and uses his voice (not his words) to illustrate what he expects the orchestra to do.  And he rehearses the same phrases over and over.  Yet the work he puts into rehearsal doesn't translate into enjoyment for me.  What do I think of when I hear Dudamel?  Overdone and working too hard with little show for it in listener appreciation.

John Williams.  I am a lifelong fan of all his work.  I enjoy his recordings of other peoples work.  They're exquisitely textbook in my opinion.  What he brings is the addition of some heft to the bottom end.  Different that that of Dutoit.  Both enjoyable but in different ways.

I could go into all the Beethoven's I have with different conductors - but don't feel that is a productive conversation as they are all different.  And with Beethoven I don't listen with a specific conductor in mind.  I'm listening for something different.  Whether that be in tempo, lyricism it is more about Beethoven's ideas and how they are interpreted.  Not in the interpretation of all works recorded by those particular ensembles or conductors - but in what they do with Beethoven's work in particular.  

With the conductors and orchestras above it about what they do with everyone's work as a perspective to how they approach music.  I couldn't care less about how those who recorded Beethoven record anything else - unless they do something mind blowing with Beethoven's work.