Who are your favorite conductors?

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I was reading an old thread on John's skills as a conductor, and figured I'd make a more general one rather than resurrecting it.

Living or dead, though it may be more interesting to try and limit answers to those who are still with us. For me, it's Bernstein, von Karajan, Stokowski, Previn, Tilson Thomas, Rattle, and Salonen. Especially Salonen; I think he's my current favorite. His 2008 recording of the complete Firebird with the LA Philharmonic is a revelation, with the most exhilarating reading of the finale I've ever heard.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC9F704C53C295917

[KK 3,310]

Leonard Bernstein is my all time favourite!

Of the younger ones, Dudamel is also one of my personal favs (his recording of Rite of Spring is my favourite).

[Sharkissimo 1,976]

For me, Stokowski will forever be #1.

[Glóin the Dark 1,642]

For me, number one is Pierre Boulez.

Simon Rattle, Colin Davis and Benjamin Zander spring to mind as others I normally expect pleasing results from.

[Romão 2,434]

Claudio Abbado might be my favorite. I'm really partial to his Mussorgsky recordings, that really opened up that composer's music to me

[gkgyver 1,647]

[Naïve Old Fart 12,152]

Nice one, gkgyver. No idea what the caption represents, but damn, is it funny!

Conductors? Will I get socked in the mouth if I said John Williams?

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Nope, he's good.

[chuck 155]

George Carlin.

[nightscape94 967]

Ormandy

Stokowski

Karajan

Jansons

Haitink

Rattle

Mackerras

Boulez

Bernstein

[A24 4,924]

Love the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, no conductor, non whatsoever.

[Bespin Copilot 10,058]

Love Karajan for Beethoven. For me he's the Master of transitions.

For Beethoven Symphonies, I really love Osmo Vanska too. He's the master of nuances :-)

Concerning Bach cantatas, I love John Eliot Gardiner and Philippe Herreweghe.

Leonard Bernstein is actually my favourite conductor concerning Mahler Symphonies.

A conductor that I begin to follow is Yannick Nézet-Seguin (Brucker, Mahler, Brahms), a fellow Quebecois with great great great potential.

Claudio Abbado and Simon Rattle are amongs conductors I really can't bear when they try to direct Beethoven or Mozart.

[Joni Wiljami 1,237]

Love the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, no conductor, non whatsoever.

I hate conducters. Mostly they only ruin the music for their narsistic and egoistic needs.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,261]

Mostly? I'd say that's quite an exaggeration. Maybe some of the most visible.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,152]

When it came to Vaughn Williams, Vernon Handley always got the best out of the Liverpool Phil.

[SpiritOf77 2]

Nobody shouting up for Barenboim? I was lucky enough to be at his Ring cycle at the BBC Proms last July and he was... well, I actually can't tell you how good he was. Beyond my powers of description.

[Marian Schedenig 10,833]

It very much depends on the type of music. Overall, I'm a Karajan fan, though I'm getting more suspicious of his pre-Romantic interpretations. But his Bruckner and Strauss are in the highest class, I love this Ring des Nibelungen and I'm fond of his Beethoven, and much more.

For Bruckner (my special favourite), other standouts are Celibidache (his Munich 4th coda and 7th are, to my knowledge, *the* best pieces of music ever recorded) and Wand (who recorded the symphony cycle nearly 3 times, and he only started in his 60s - the opening horn of his Berlin 4th is incredibly beautiful). Thielemann seems to take after Celibidache in his Bruckner performances (I've heard fantastic fantastic a 7 and 8 live by him, though the last time I heard him I was seriously underwhelmed), and Rattle seems to have a good to great grasp on all sorts of things from Bruckner to Mahler to Stravinsky to Walton and Janacek. Among my other favourite recordings are Kempe's Ariadne auf Naxos, Alpensinfonie and Lohengrin, and his other Strauss is certainly worthwhile (if mostly not quite up to Karajan's level), but I know little else of what he has done.

Nobody shouting up for Barenboim? I was lucky enough to be at his Ring cycle at the BBC Proms last July and he was... well, I actually can't tell you how good he was. Beyond my powers of description.

He seems to be doing very good Wagner (don't know too much; sadly, his fantastic Holländer is harmed by an awful Senta) and Bruckner (again don't know too much, though I've been eyeing his complete symphony cycle for many years now).

[Naïve Old Fart 12,152]

Nobody shouting up for Barenboim? I was lucky enough to be at his Ring cycle at the BBC Proms last July and he was... well, I actually can't tell you how good he was. Beyond my powers of description.

Too showy for my tastes.

[Joni Wiljami 1,237]

the opening horn of his Berlin 4th is incredibly beautiful

Mostly because of the great hornplayer, my friend Markus Maskuniitty, who was a principal horn back then.