Giulini

[Conchis]

I'm currently working my way through the Giulini in Vienna DG box set. So far, I've enjoyed his Beethoven Piano Concertos, but they are more remarkable for Michaelangeli's performance than for the conductor's.

His Brahms symphonies left me fairly unmoved, though I will return to them.

The Requiem, though, was a different matter: serene and expertly paced. Interesting to hear a committed Catholic conduct a religious work by an agnostic.

Currently, I'm listening to the Bruckner 7 (the final three symphonies are included here) and it is shaping up to be one of the best I've heard. Giulini brings out the sensuousness in this music, without neglecting the architecture. Though that could be said of most 'name' Italian conductors in the German repertoire.

Any opinions on Giulini? The 'party line' seems to be that he was an exciting conductor up until the early seventies, when he became a bit somnambulistic. I love his Philharmonia recordings form the 60s, but I'm not convinced that he 'lost the plot' so comprehensively in later life....

[Richard Tarleton]

I know next to nothing about his orchestral recordings, but he was a fine Verdi conductor, no? I just have a couple of recordings - Falstaff 1983, and Trovatore, the 1984 recording of the latter almost knocking the great 1970 Mehta version off the top spot on my shelves - sumptuous cast. He excelled at the likes of Falla and Ravel, I believe. I have his Bruckner 9....

I saw him once - visiting London with the Chicago SO in 1971, a cracking Beethoven 7 and Ravel Daphnis and Chloe.

His exquisite dress sense deserves a mention, as does his hairdresser - beautifully cut suits, overcoat draped over shoulders....the double-breasted chalk-stripe on the cover of Falstaff...the best-dressed conductor I've seen, with Lorin Maazel a close second.

[Conchis]

I know next to nothing about his orchestral recordings, but he was a fine Verdi conductor, no? I just have a couple of recordings - Falstaff 1983, and Trovatore, the 1984 recording of the latter almost knocking the great 1970 Mehta version off the top spot on my shelves - sumptuous cast. He excelled at the likes of Falla and Ravel, I believe. I have his Bruckner 9....

I saw him once - visiting London with the Chicago SO in 1971, a cracking Beethoven 7 and Ravel Daphnis and Chloe.

His exquisite dress sense deserves a mention, as does his hairdresser - beautifully cut suits, overcoat draped over shoulders....the double-breasted chalk-stripe on the cover of Falstaff...the best-dressed conductor I've seen, with Lorin Maazel a close second.

Yes, I've never known anyone look more like a film star without actually being a film star. ;)

I love those opera recordings, too: it's a pity he confined himself more or less exclusively to the Italian repertoire. I think he could have given us some superb Wagner.

He recorded the Bruckner 9 twice - once in Chicago, then later in Vienna. I've yet to hear the Vienna performance, which seems to be more widely appreciated than the earlier one.

I would strongly advise you to check out his Chicago Mahler 9, which is my favourite in that very crowded field.

[jayne lee wilson]

My favourites would be the 1975 Bruckner Symphony No.2 with the Vienna Symphony (1877 Nowak, Testament, VSCD etc.), and a 1962 Philharmonia album of Debussy - La Mer & Nocturnes (sounding especially lovely on a Toshiba-EMI 2005 remaster). There's some lovely Toshiba Ravel from the same Philharmonia vintage too.

I haven't heard them for many years now, but his late VPO Bruckner 8th and 9th were in an otherworldly spiritual class of their own, and justly revered by many reviewers. He was a true, individual (if highly selective!) Brucknerian.

[Richard Tarleton]

My favourites would be the 1975 Bruckner Symphony No.2 with the Vienna Symphony (Testament, VSCD etc.),

Yes I'd forgotten I have that too - very fine, but now you've reprogrammed me with 1872 original (Tintner, Blomstedt) I don't really listen to it these days
I have the VPO Bruckner 9, the cover reminding us he had a way with roll-neck sweaters too.....

[Petrushka]

I saw Giulini twice: a superb Bruckner 7 at the 1982 Proms (was/is available on a BBC Legends CD) and a Beethoven 9 in Birmingham, both with the Philharmonia.

Those 1960s recordings with the Philharmonia are legendary and the Warner box 'The London Years' is well worth investigating. His reputation is as a conductor who had a deep reverence for the music he directed, an almost spiritual connection with the composer. Those last three Bruckner symphonies with the VPO show this very well and it's a great pity that he never gave us a complete set. As has been rightly pointed out the Chicago SO Mahler 9 is very fine but he also performed and recorded an excellent Das Lied von der Erde, particularly in a live performance with the VPO available on the Orfeo label. Also worth investigating are one or two live BPO concerts on Testament especially a Bruckner 8 that achieved a first choice in Building a Library from Richard Osborne no less. An especial favourite Giulini recording of mine is that of the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures with the Chicago SO on DG.

Yes, a great pity that Giulini never turned to Wagner and perhaps it's his highly selective approach to which composers he chose to perform and record has led to him being under-appreciated in the years since his death.

[Barbirollians]

A very fine accompanist in concertos too - his Beethoven and Brahms concertos with Perlman remain outstanding - as well as many of the recordings mentioned above especially the Bruckner I would throw in his lovely Chicago Brahms 4 and Mahler 1 on EMI and his Mussorgsky/ Ravel Pictures on DG .

[Richard Barrett]

I don't know many of Giulini's recordings and I'm not really sure what it might mean to have a spiritual connection to composers, but I haven't heard a recording of Bruckner 8 that measures up to his. I've never heard any orchestra play with such perfection, the balance between and within sections is also perfectly judged to project this music's unity between structure and expression, somehow it seems strange to remind oneself that what I'm hearing is "merely" the activity of human beings. On the other hand I enthusiastically lent my CDs to a friend who didn't hear it in this way at all!

[cloughie]

I think very much a conductor who performed and recorded the works that he liked rather than complete cycles of symphonies eg Tchaik, only 2 and 6, and Ravel only Mother Goose Suite and D & C Suite 2, Strav Firebird Suite. Most of what he did was good. One of my first favourites of his was with the Philharmonia, an HMV Concert Classics LP of Firebird and Mother Goose Suites, topped up with Bizet Jeux d'Enfants. I also remember a concert I attended at Warwick Univ Arts Centre back in 1990 when par way through a performance of the Firebird Suite a light bulb in the auritorium exploded and Giulini stood bolt upright on the podium as though he was being shot at! And then just continued the performance!

[Conchis]

I think very much a conductor who performed and recorded the works that he liked rather than complete cycles of symphonies eg Tchaik, only 2 and 6, and Ravel only Mother Goose Suite and D & C Suite 2, Strav Firebird Suite. Most of what he did was good. One of my first favourites of his was with the Philharmonia, an HMV Concert Classics LP of Firebird and Mother Goose Suites, topped up with Bizet Jeux d'Enfants. I also remember a concert I attended at Warwick Univ Arts Centre back in 1990 when par way through a performance of the Firebird Suite a light bulb in the auritorium exploded and Giulini stood bolt upright on the podium as though he was being shot at! And then just continued the performance!

By Norman Lebrecht's definition that makes him 'not a great conductor.'

[cloughie]

By Norman Lebrecht's definition that makes him 'not a great conductor.'

What does he know?

I always think of these music critics in the same way as food critics. They don't cook and Lebrecht would probably have difficulty conducting a bus!

[vinteuil]

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... there's a good DG 16-CD box of Giulini - and it's relatively cheap currently (some 39 euros incl p&p), on italian amazon -

http://amzn.eu/bZaVy06

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[Conchis]

That box borrows liberally from the two Guilini in America sets as well as the Giulini in Vienna set that DG put out in the early 2010s.

I picked up the latter for only £15.00 (new and in shrink wrap) from the last surviving bricks and mortar retailer in Leamington Spa a couple of weeks back. It's missing the disc of Brahms 1, which i already have as a separate issue. Probably not worth my while complaining, therefore.




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[Beresford]

My favourites would be the ..... 1962 Philharmonia album of Debussy - La Mer & Nocturnes (sounding especially lovely on a Toshiba-EMI 2005 remaster).
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Is this different from the 2004 EMI ART reissue (with a small picture of the original LP image on the front), which I find lacking in sound quality? Does it have a beach sunset on the cover? There now seems to be a hybrid SACD on Amazon.

[cloughie]

Is this different from the 2004 EMI ART reissue (with a small picture of the original LP image on the front), which I find lacking in sound quality? Does it have a beach sunset on the cover? There now seems to be a hybrid SACD on Amazon.

I remember it as SXLP 30146 and the LP sound was superb then! The sleeve had the sea washing the shells and pebbles on the shore!