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Art of Conducting: Great Conductors of the Past |
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Art of Conducting: Great Conductors of the Past
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by Elektra / Wea
Sales Rank: 5260
Price: $29.98
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Is it fair to the musical greats of the past to subject them to television's talking head/archival footage/talking head presentations of today? If it helps rescue some unjustly forgotten conductor, maybe so. If the sound byte + 45 second film clip leads a viewer to think that there is nothing more than that to a conductor's story, then that's wrong.<p>Take Leopold Stokowski, for example. In the early 20th century, he put the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on the map and then took the Philadelphia Orchestra to the top. He premiered a lot of American music as well as a lot of difficult new music, at a time when most audiences only wanted Romantic warhorses. He was a pioneer in many ways, and he took a lot of arrows for it early in his career. Yet in this documentary, the Stokowski segment presents a familiar cliché. We see the long-haired ham producing his luscious, dowager-pleasing strings sound, and hear some chin-tugging by the guest expert about how, in its own way, maybe it wasn't so bad. <p>Or take Toscanini. We don't see his charitable wartime work, his defiance of Hitler and Mussolini, his whipping of the lazy Bayreuth festival orchestra into shape, or his triumphs with the Met. However, we do see one of his famous temper tantrums. <p>So, since the television medium sometimes forces unjust brevity onto its subjects, it's best to regard this program as a sampler. All of the people included could have been the subject of documentaries equalling this show's length. <p>As for the "art" part of The Art of Conducting, the program delivers. It is fascinating to watch Sir John Barbirolli ironing out a bassline, or Bruno Walter, with his light but firm touch, getting his violins to "sing", or Sir Thomas Beecham playing the maestro role semi-tongue-in-cheek. And the concert footage is generous and usually free of annoying voice-overs. So get this video, certainly-but don't let it be the final word for you.
Viewer Reviews
This wonderful 2-hour documentary opens the door into a world which the general music listener probably never even knew existed, and for those who had a vague idea, many more exciting revelations and deeper insight will be gained from this tape. In this modern high-tech age where music is artificially reconstructed in the studio, a conductor seems almost superfluous, but it is evident from this documentary that the price we pay for technical progress is a genuine form of art. It is the art of shaping sounds like a sculptor shapes his clay, or like a painter adding colours to create depth, contrast, highlights and perspective. Where a complex piece of music and large orchestra are concerned, it is not good enough for each musician to simply play the notes written down by the composer, especially when the music is meant to express the vast gamut of human feelings, sentiments, moods and thoughts. And just like each person has individual personality, so each conductor has his own concept of how a certain piece of music should sound. This is the aspect which first struck and impressed me when viewing this tape, namely how each of the dozen or so conductors featured here are all uniquely different in character, personality and style. Each one moves his baton differently, while Stokowski conducts very effectively only with his hands, and Herbert Von Karajan always conducts with his eyes closed. Some are intensely passionate and vibrant, others create a smoother, romantic sound, all of which can result in the same famous symphony sounding quite different depending on who conducts it. Not only this, but even the entire orchestra can adopt a certain sound or style that is characteristic of its conductor, as if it has been imprinted with his personality and way of interpreting music.
Although this is only a VHS, the sound quality of the music is extremely good, even of rather old film footage of conductors directing various famous orchestras from the early 1930s onwards. There is no actual narration, but enough is said by various people ranging from well-known musicians to other experts commenting on the conductors they knew. There are many good, lengthy film clips, mostly black and white, to demonstrate the conductor's techniques and style as they direct a variety of classical music from famous to less well-known pieces. An excellent 18-page booklet accompanies this tape, and concise, studious notes provide all the information on each conductor that the novice and also more knowledgeable music lover would like to know about these great conductors of the past. Having seen and heard the many fascinating and even mysterious ways in which conductors have created a musical work of art, listening to classical music will never be the same again: it becomes a much more spiritual, artistic and emotionally rewarding experience for the enlightened listener!
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Art of Conducting: Great Conductors of the Past
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