Great Conductors of the Past

Classical Music / The Art of Conducting


A most wonderful documentary of great conductors of the past.  As a consummate lover of classical music, especially from Baroque to early Romantic era, I find this video a treasure. If you're like me, you'll never tire listening to the majestic performances.

As a chorister,  to me the greatness of a conductor - whether conducting a symphony or choir or both - lies most significantly in the time devoted to the actual rehearsal process (the arduous journey of a performer), in which the greatest percentage (perhaps 90%) of his/her work is done. The performance itself, whilst important (the destination), is almost more for its effect on the audience than on the orchestra or the choir --- the rehearsal process is the heart of the music.





Video Resources:

Conductors and Conducting. YouTube, Uploaded by Burtw47. Accessed  April 22, 2020. 

Great Conductors of the Past (1996). YouTube, uploaded by Eduard Moya. Accessed April 22, 2022.  (Please refer to Youtube for corresponding licenses of the music and the artists.)  

Great Female Conductors. 10 names from History of Music. YOuTube, uploaded by Legendry Musicians by History of Music. Accessed May 22, 2022.

The 10 Greatest Living Conductors (for the moment ) 2022. YouTube, uploaded by The Ultimate Classical Music Guide by Dave Hurwitz. Accessed April 22, 2023.

(c) May 22, 2020. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

André Previn

Classical Music Datebook: April 6

André Previn, Conductor, Pianist, Composer

André Previn, KBE, was a German-born American conductor, pianist and composer, born on April 6, 1929.  

Previn was one of the most versatile musicians of the 20th century, and winner of Academy Awards for his film work. He won many Grammy Awards for his recordings.

Andre Previn Profile 

Previn, a distant relative of the composer Gustav Mahler, was born in Berlin, Germany, to a Russian Jewish family.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Classical Music Conductors Datebook:   March 6, 2016

Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt dies at 86 

The celebrated Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt - considered to be the "pope" of the baroque music revival - has died in Vienna aged 86. A statement on his website said he "took his last breath peacefully surrounded by family".

RIP, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and thank you for the many wonderful performances you showered us, with your beloved Concentus Musicus Wien, including Mozart's music.  Read more from BBC...

Johann Kalliwoda

Classical Music Datebook:  February 21.

Johann Kalliwoda, Composer (1801-1866)  


Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda (Jan Křtitel Václav Kalivoda) was a prolific composer. His works are numerous, of which there are about 250 works or sets of works, opus-numbered.

Bohemian composer, violinist and conductor Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda was born on February 21, 1801, in Prague. His compositions included operas and symphonies. One of his concert overtures was commissioned was used to open the first concert in 1842, of the New York Philharmonic.

Friedrich H. Himmel

Friedrich Heinrich Himmel (Nov 20, 1765 - June 8, 1814), German composer and conductor,  was born at Treuenbrietzen in Brandenburg, Prussia, and originally studied theology at Halle.

During a temporary stay at Potsdam, he had an opportunity of showing his self-acquired skill as a pianist before King Frederick William II, who made him a yearly allowance to enable him to complete his musical studies. He did this under Johann Gottlieb Naumann, a German composer of the Italian school, the style of that school Himmel himself adopted in his serious operas.  The first of these, a pastoral opera, Il Primo Navigatore, was produced at Venice in 1794 with great success.

His Italian operas were all received with great favor in their day. Of much greater importance than these is an operetta to German words by Kotzebue, called Fanchon, an admirable specimen of the primitive form of the musical drama known in Germany as the Singspiel. Himmel's gift of writing genuine simple melody is also observable in his songs. He died in Berlin.

Maestro Arturo Toscanini

Classical Music / Conductor's Datebook: March 25

Arturo Toscanini, Conductor, Uncompromising Perfectionist

Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), born March 25, was an Italian conductor and considered one of the greatest musical interpreters of all time. This brilliant musician nicknamed "old man" continued conducting into his nineties, ever intense and dedicated to his art.

Acclaimed classical music interpreter of the late 19th and 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory.

At various times, he was music director of La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.



Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937-54), that led to his becoming a household name especially in the United States, through his radio and television broadcasts and many more recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. 

Toscanini was renowned for his accomplishments as conductor of the Metropolitan  Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the NBC Symphony, which he led for 17 years. He was a champion of Richard Wagner's music, whose operas he introduced to his Italian countrymen at La Scala. The operas of Giacomo Puccini also elicited his devotion.  
 

Maestro Toscanini died on January 16, 1957.

 

 

Suggested Reading:

 

Toscanini, The Recorded Legend. Classical Notes. Peter Gutmann. Accessed March 25, 2013. 

Trivia:
The 25^th of March is also the birthday of Bela Bartok, famous Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist. Toscanini is 14 years older than Bartok.

Image credit:

Arturo Toscanini.Wikipedia / Public Domain

 

Video Credit:

Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 "Choral" - NBC Symphony Orchestra, Toscanini (3 April 1948). Telecast: 3 April, 1948 at NBC Studio 8-H, New York City. YouTube, uploaded by 1Furtwangler. Accessed March 25, 2017.


Resources:

• Arturo Toscanini.  NPR.org/artists/89059349/arturo-toscanini.  Accessed March 29, 2013
• Arturo Toscanini. www.Biography.com.  Accessed March 25, 2017. 
• Sadie, Stanley, Ed. The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music.  London: Macmillan, 1994.

(c) March 29, 2013. Tel.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved. 

Conductor Georg Solti

Classical Music Dateline:  October 21

Featuring Conductor Georg Solti (1912-1997)

Georg Solti, KBE, was born today October 21, in 1912.  He was a Hungarian-born British conductor, both in orchestral and operatic music. Widely regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, Georg Solti holds the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, winning 31, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Link:   Georg Solti's Seven Most Watched YouTube Videos.  (www.WQXR.org)

Leonard Bernstein

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: August 25

 

 

 

Brief biography of Leonard Bernstein, American conductor, composer, pianist, teacher and author; a consummate musician, one of 20^th century's most celebrated conductors.  Famous for West Side Story, Candide, and Wonderful Town.

 

 

Leonard Bernstein was a renowned conductor, composer and pianist, famous for musical West Side Story, Wonderful Town, and Candide. His most popular stage works are ballets and musicals.

Energetic and versatile, Bernstein was more influential as a conductor than as a composer, as he drew tremendous audiences around the world. He was considered an eclectic composer with his inspired influences coming from many different sources - from his fellow American composers Gershwin and Copland, from Mahler and Stravinsky, exciting idea of concert jazz, and just about anything.  

 

Early Life: Musical Training

Leonard Bernstein was born on 25 August 1918, in Lawrence Massachusetts, USA. He studied at Harvard University with Walter Piston and at Curtis Institute.   

 

The Conductor

In 1944, aged 26, he made his reputation as a conductor as a replacement when Bruno Walter became ill, after which he was associated with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra from 194, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as musical director from 1958-69, soon achieving an international reputation. He conducted in Vienna and La Scala, Milan, the first American to conduct there.

 

The Composer

Bernstein wrote two of the greatest of all American stage and screen musicals, On the Town, Candide, and West Side Story, which is Shakespeare's classic story Romeo and Juliet transferred to the contemporary New York life.  

 

The Author

In more personal level, Bernstein was also an author (e.g., The Joy of Music), teacher, spellbinding broadcaster on radio and television, simply, a talented communicator. 

 

The Musical Director

From 1958 to 1970, he was musical director of the New York Philharmonic.

 

Maestro Leonard Bernstein was one of the most attractive, entertaining, and creative minds of the 20^th century. He died in New York, 14 October 1990.

 

Bernstein's Works

His works established a more realistic, contemporary themes. His works, which established a more realistic, contemporary themes, include symphonies such as The Age of Anxiety, ballets such as Fancy Free, and scores for musicals, including  Wonderful Town, West Side Story, and Mass in memory of President John F Kennedy. Other works are symphony Jeremiah, the ballet Facsimile, and the musicals Candide and the Chichester Psalms.

 

Symphonies:

Jeremiah (1944)

Symphony No.2, 'The Age of Anxiety' (1949)

Symphony No.3, 'Kaddish'

 

Opera:

Trouble in Tahiti (1951)

 

Ballets:

Fancy Free (1944)

Facsimile (1946)

 

Scores for Musicals:

Wonderful Town (1953)

Candide (1956)

West Side Story (1957, in which he arranged an exciting set of “symphonic dances” from the score, also includes the song 'America')

Chichester Psalms (1965)

Mass (1971) in memory of President John F Kennedy

 

Film Music:

On the Waterfront (1954)

 

 

Image Credit:

Leonard Bernstein. en.Wikipedia.org / By Jack Mitchell, created 1 Dec 1977.  

 

Resources:  

Leonard Bernstein.  Leonard Bernstein Official Website

Leonard Bernstein The Gift of Music 1993 French subtitles. Youtube, uploaded by Hans Hesseling. Accessed January 4, 2024.

The Encyclopedia of Music by Max Wade-Matthews & Wendy Thompson, Hermes House (2002)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan (1994)

The Oxford Companion to Music, Edited by Alison Latham, OUP (2002)

The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Edited by Michael Kennedy, OUP (1994)

  

(c) August 2009. Updated August 25, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Willem Mengelberg

Classical Music Datebook: March 28

This day, March 28, 1871, Dutch composer and conductor Willem Mengelberg is born in Utrecht, Netherlands. He studied music in the Cologne conservatory, including piano and composition. When he was chosen as General Music Director of the city of Lucerne, Switzerland at the age of 21, he was conductor of an orchestra and a choir, directing a music school. He also taught piano lessons and continued to compose.

Mengelberg is highly renowned for his work as the principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1895 to 1945. Mengelberg founded the Mahler tradition of Concertgebouw. In 1902 he met Gustav Mahler and became friends with him. Mengelberg was instrumental in introducing most of Mahler's work to The Netherlands. Mahler regularly visited The Netherlands to introduce his work to Dutch audiences.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: April 1

Rachmaninoff was a superb pianist, a brilliant composer and conductor. His music is 19th century rooted yet adheres to Classical form. His concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, are among the most popular in piano and orchestra literature.  He was a protégé of Piotr Tchaikovsky.

Sergei (Sergey) Rachmaninoff (also Rachmaninov or Rakhmaninov) was a Russian composer, conductor and pianist. He was born in Semyonovo, 1 April 1873.

Pianist and Composer

Initially, he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882 and later at the Moscow Conservatory in 1885-1892. It was during this time that he showed himself to be an outstanding pianist. In 1891, he wrote his first piano concerto and his well-known Prelude C#. Two years later, he scored success with Aleko, his first opera composition as his graduation work.

Symphony No. 1 written in 1895 was not successful causing him emotional stress.  With the help of a hypnotist Dr. Dahl, he returned to composition. His confidence returned with the huge success of his Piano Concerto No.2 in 1901.  He dedicated this concerto to Dr. Dahl. The following year he married his cousin Natalie Satin. 

Below,  listen and enjoy Rachmaninoff's famous Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30, in the powerful interpretation and superb performance of 18-year old gold medalist Yunchan Lim: his emotion, his technique. Likewise brilliantly conducted by Marin Alsop, with Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.  2022 Cliburn Competition. Accessed April 1, 2023.

 

Nadia Boulanger

Classical Music / Great Music Teachers

French Teacher, Conductor, Composer

 
Brief biography of Nadia Boulanger, her life and career. One of the most influential women inall of music history, considered the greatest music teacher of the 20^th century. Many of her students became prominent composers.


Nadia Juliette Boulanger (1887-1979), was one of the most influential figures in music during the twentieth century. A distinguished teacher of prominent composers, she was also a conductor and a composer. Although she initially became known as a composer and conductor of major orchestras, her role as music teacher is what she's most famous for.

French poet, playwright and film director Jean Cocteau said of her: “… It is rare that a young musician intrigues us, or that his work at least partially opens a door, without his disclosing that he is a pupil of Nadia Boulanger.”

Boulanger was born in Paris on September 16, 1887, coming from a musical family, with her father, Ernest Boulanger, like his father before him, taught singing at the Paris Conservatoire. Her mother Raissa, a Russian-born princess, was a pupil of her father. She was her first teacher.

At 5 years old, Boulanger could read music. She enrolled at the conservatory at 10 and completed training at 17, by this time, already winning awards for composing. She won second place in France's prestigious Prix de Rome for her cantata, "La Sirene."