The Karajan legacy...

[Contratrombone64]

Norman Lebrecht is certainly know for one thing: being incredibly bitchy. Karajan, on the other hand, had real artistic merit.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinio...that-impoverished-classical-music-805141.html

 

[Kromme]

Well i can not say i fully agree with Lebrecht here but this is a good anti-thesis to William "Karajan can do no wrong" Osbourne.I am still looking for one conductor that is great acoording to Lebrecht though.He bashed Carlos Kleiber too in his obituary for him.

 

[Fretless]

Even before I read Lebrecht I never really understood why people fawned over Karajan so much (and still do). Even though Lebrecht obviously has it out for Karajan's legacy, if you take away the more inflammatory tone of his writing, the basic elements of what he has to say still seem solid.

Despite all of Lebrecht's writings on Karajan, I haven't noticed that it's made much of a dent in the overall attitude towards him. His recordings still get highly recommended on other message boards, and most classical musicians I work with either don't have the time or care to weed through five interpretations of a piece and identify a Karajan recording as being slightly more artificial.

Still, I haven't yet heard a reason to buy a Karajan recording.

 

[the maestro]

Some music critics are very strange!! They keep exalting Toscanini and regard him the greatest conductor ever. But these very same critics, especially American critics, see Karajan, whose approach is verly similar to Toscanini, as Mr. Smoothy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Corno Dolce]

Hi Fretless,

To be honest, whenever I have come across the vapid prose of Lebrecht in regards to von Karajan, I can only wince. Lebrecht comes across as having a streak of lunacy about him.

My $0.03 cents worth,

CD :tiphat::tiphat::tiphat::tiphat:

 

[zoned]

Karayan too my "long ears" was rather too cool,devoid of emotion.To me,music is emotion(life)so it should be presented as such to the best of the performers ability.I do not think Karayan was a great conductor like Furtwangler.This is my humble opinion.I stand to these statements to my death.(just joking) I like "my music" emotional.Just ask Mahler! Mahler said writing a symphony was like creating a world.I wish I had the compositional skills to express that as fluently,but I feel the music......

































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