Christian Thielemann on the art of conducting

[Tetrachord]

I've found this very interesting, and there are two other lectures in this series from Oxford:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfO8slw_bmk

And can somebody please tell me how to embed a U-tube link all by itself, without all the additional links lined up on the page at the right hand side.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And can somebody please tell me how to embed a U-tube link all by itself, without all the additional links lined up on the page at the right hand side.

By "embed", do you mean "Full Screen", Tetra? If so, hover your cursor over the video so that a tool bar appears at the bottom. At the far right of the toolbar, there appears an icon that looks like a picture frame - click on that, and the video takes up the whole screen. To get back to "standard" format, just use the "Esc" key.

Hope that helps - apologies if I've misunderstood.

[Tetrachord]

Thanks, yes that's what I meant. In short, when somebody clicks on the link that's all they get - not the additional U-Tube links on the right hand side of the screen. I've tried what you suggested and it didn't work. No toolbar appeared at the bottom.

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks, yes that's what I meant. In short, when somebody clicks on the link that's all they get - not the additional U-Tube links on the right hand side of the screen. I've tried what you suggested and it didn't work. No toolbar appeared at the bottom.

Do you mean like this, tetra? (I'm probably missing the point )

When you have your You Tube video on screen, copy the link in the address bar at the top of the screen, then in your Forum message screen toolbar (the one that starts with Bold Italics Underline) choose the Insert Video icon and paste your YouTube link in there. This seems to do away with the extraneous stuff on screen.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks, yes that's what I meant. In short, when somebody clicks on the link that's all they get - not the additional U-Tube links on the right hand side of the screen.

Oh - I don't know if that can be done (and, as a user, I wouldn't want it: many a fascinating hour has been lost following the discoveries I've made thanks to the right-hand list of links. ("Oh, look! There's a video of Horenstein in rehearsal! I'll watch that after this. Ooh! And now they're offering Boulez' Polyphonie X ... and the whole of a Calisto opera!!!" I can get quite as excited as Radio3 used to make me feel in the 1970s and '80s )

I've tried what you suggested and it didn't work. No toolbar appeared at the bottom.

That's very odd. On my computer, the "toolbar" (probably the wrong word) appears whenever I start to watch a youTube video, but then fades out - returning when I move my cursor onto the "screen" of the video itself. There's the Play/Pause "button on the left, then the "skip to next video"immediately to the right of that, then the volume/mute control, the "time point" clock - then a gap, and then three icons: a sort-of gear wheel ("settings"), an oblong ("Cinema mode") and then the "broken square picture frame" which you click on to expand the video to fill the screen.

Again, I hope this helps - but I don't think you can arrange for other people to get the full-screen version through a link: they have to choose this for themselves.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

When you have your You Tube video on screen, copy the link in the address bar at the top of the screen, then in your Forum message screen toolbar (the one that starts with Bold Italics Underline) choose the Insert Video icon and paste your YouTube link in there. This seems to do away with the extraneous stuff on screen.

That does get rid of the "extraneous stuff", but won't allow full-screen watching unless you click to watch the video on the youTube site, where you're back to square one. (And I dislike those inserted videos in posts - you either have to watch/listen to them all the way through before moving on to other Forum posts, or you stop them, read the other posts with the intention of coming back to watch it when you've finished, discover three other videos inserted in other posts that you make a mental note to add to the "things to come back to" mental list, lose the will to live ploughing through the handbag swinging posts, and completely forget which Posts contained which videos, so don't bother.

I much prefer the links that allow you to hear clips in a specially-opened-for-the-purpose window that lets you carry on listening as you continue Foruming.

[Tetrachord]

Thank you everybody, but I'm just a luddite and cannot seem to 'get it'. And my computer crashed today - never buy a Sony Vaio notebook; it's been NOTHING but trouble - and I've lost absolutely everything. I was able to get Google Chrome partially up and running today but, oh God, I'm over it!!!

[Prommer]

Thieleman is a force of nature, as these talks show. Not an easy person, or completely comfortable in his own skin, but a 'meister'.

[Tetrachord]

Why do you say you don't think he's "completely comfortable in his own skin"? I've seen him at concerts many times and he's not only well loved but generally excellent. The last concert was last year with Jonas Kaufman singing Wagner with the Dresdner Staatskapelle/Thielemann. Then another concert of Thielemann conducting Bruckner (which left me cold) when he got a huge - massive - audience response.

[slarty]

This man really is the real deal. I have also watched the lectures and his only discomfort is on the odd occasion when he is struggling to get his point over in, for him, a foreign language.
He is the greatest Wagner and Strauss conductor I have ever heard or seen, and I have been going to and listening to all for almost 50 years, Only the paucity of good enough singers occasionally lets him down, but for interpretation, second to none.
The upcoming Proms will be a wonderful showcase for him and his great orchestra.
I have tickets for the Mozart Bruckner concert in Dresden 4 days before they repeat the programme at the proms, so I get the best of both worlds, the Semperoper is a great concert venue to see and hear, and then I can record the Proms on the radio.
I recommend the lectures on YouTube, they give quite an insight into the mind and feelings of a great conductor.

[Prommer]

I am a great admirer but as for his skin discomfiture, read his book "My Life with Wagner".

He is also disliked by many in the business for his supposedly autocratic ways (both with orchestras and directors, the latter of which is evident in one of these talks), and for his narrowish repertoire.

I can only say that I look forward to his Proms appearances, and that he is incomparable in Strauss and wonderful in Wagner.

[Tetrachord]

I am a great admirer but as for his skin discomfiture, read his book "My Life with Wagner".

He is also disliked by many in the business for his supposedly autocratic ways (both with orchestras and directors, the latter of which is evident in one of these talks), and for his narrowish repertoire.

I can only say that I look forward to his Proms appearances, and that he is incomparable in Strauss and wonderful in Wagner.

He would belong to a pantheon of a great many autocratic conductors!!

[Keraulophone]

It was pleasing to hear Christian Thielemann talk about the survival of the special sound of the Dresden Staatskapelle, despite many of today's orchestras having lost their individuality. He suggested that after German unification, they didn't have the large turnover of personnel that might have been feared, and those that joined were, to an extent, home-grown. As an opera orchestra, it is well-attuned to singers and used to 'breathing' with them, their sound having a transparencey through which singers can be heard, even in their lower registers. In concert they can sound like a large group of chamber musicians, with solo instruments effortlessly emerging just enough from the tutti. It's good to know that this ancient orchestra and their music director are still working hard to preserve their unique glow.

[Tetrachord]

It was pleasing to hear Christian Thielemann talk about the survival of the special sound of the Dresden Staatskapelle, despite many of today's orchestras having lost their individuality. He suggested that after German unification, they didn't have the large turnover of personnel that might have been feared, and those that joined were, to an extent, home-grown. As an opera orchestra, it is well-attuned to singers and used to 'breathing' with them, their sound having a transparencey through which singers can be heard, even in their lower registers. In concert they can sound like a large group of chamber musicians, with solo instruments effortlessly emerging just enough from the tutti. It's good to know that this ancient orchestra and their music director are still working hard to preserve their unique glow.

I have heard them 2 or 3 times with Thielemann at the Musikverein and I can testify to their superb sound and musicianship.