Gennady Rozhdestvensky 4/05/1931-16/06/2018

[PJPJ]

RIP

Elgar - Enigma Variations - Proms 2007

[Petrushka]

Rohzdestensky's Shostakovich symphony cycle with the USSR Ministry of Culture Orchestra is one of the best around despite - or, perhaps, because of - the 'in yer face' Soviet sonics but if there is one GR recording I would choose it would be the 1970 complete Swan Lake with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra.

[Bryn]

I very much doubt it has survived the decades, but if I can find it, my 1977(?) cassette recording of a Radio 3 broadcast of GR conducting the Chicago SO in Ives 4th Symphony will bring back very fond memories of this great conductor's versatility.

[jayne lee wilson]

... I think Stephen Johnson this morning said that at the last count there were eight versions of Bruckner 3 ...



.


.

Yes, but only three, for practical performing and listening purposes or choices... ...1873-4, 1877-8, 1889-90... the differences between, say, Nowak 1889 and Schalk 1990 are relatively slight, more often down to expression/dynamics markings etc...
(I suppose some of us might want to see 1874 gain greater prominence, but let's not get into that now...)

Incidentally with regard to Petrushka's comment on the DSCH above - the BMG/Melodiya Twofers of the DSCH cycle can indeed sound a bit treble-high, but the Olympia transfers are often far easier on the ear - and I think generally superior . The SQ does vary across the series but there are usually cheap 2ndhand Olympia CDs around, so try them one or two at a time....

[Nick Armstrong]

Uniquely marvellous. Very sad

[vibratoforever]

Yes indeed.

Does anyone know how recently he was still conducting? Many conductors seem to reach a good age. Is it the aerobic exercise. I wonder?

I like this quote from The Gramophone:

...he did not believe in over-rehearsing, preferring the inspiration of the moment to bring off some very impressive concerts. ‘The point of rehearsal is to put together the concert,’ he told the French film-maker Bruno Monsaingeon, ‘not to give the concert. The concert brings with it an emotional intensity that couldn’t, and shouldn’t, be there beforehand...

Via Youtube he can be seen conducting until at least 2016 in a Bolshoi Anniversary Gala - and he hints it may be his last appearance there.

I like his Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Nielsen, but am most grateful for the Vaughan Williams symphony cycle.

[BBMmk2]

I wonder if that was a Sunday afternoon concert coupling the Prokofiev 5 and the Tchaikovsky 4? It so, I well remember the white hot intensity of both readings on the live R3 relay.

I believe it was! There’s a YouTube recording of these works, worth having a look.

[Dave2002]

I can only recall seeing him once - at the RFH conducting Satie's Parade and then the Rite of Spring many years ago. I hope that was the actual concert, and it was him conducting. I may have seen him since, but the RFH concert sticks in my memory because of the gunshots during Parade, plus we had seats rather close to the platform, so the Rite was pretty powerful.

RIP

[Bergonzi]

Pure genius - one of the few true greats. RIP.

[Mal]

... Many conductors seem to reach a good age. Is it the aerobic exercise. I wonder?

Is it vigorous enough? There was some talk about standing up being good for you, but the scientists seem to be back tracking on that:

https://www.nhs.uk/news/lifestyle-and-exercise/standing-no-healthier-than-sitting/

This comes from the famous study of civil servants that more famously showed that the higher up in the civil service you are the longer you live. It seems that those in control live longer! Maybe that explains conductor longevity.

[Once Was 4]

Sad to see the death today of the Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky. RIP

I remember well playing second horn in a concert at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival under his baton. The programme was mainly (not entirely) music by Schnitkke – the Violin Concerto and Faust Cantata. The management had given him three full rehearsals on the Faust at Huddersfield Town Hall – the first two on a morning and afternoon, orchestra only. He walked in, played through the work without stopping, made a few points and then, at about coffee break time, his huge voice boomed “We r’earse again tomorrow when we have sinGGers!” And with that he wished us gooday and departed. We sat around uncertainly, not knowing what to do, until the manager came out and said “I suppose that means you have the rest of the day off!”
Mind you, he could be unpredictable in other ways! The concert opened with an arrangement (I think by Mahler) of a Bruckner piece (does anybody know more – I cannot remember) and, on the show, he set off at about twice the speed that he had rehearsed it which made the performance, shall we say, ‘interesting’.
It was a great privilege and pleasure to work for him; sadly, a projected run of opera with him never materialised.

[Boilk]

My introduction to Shostakovich was his Symphony No.4 (still the only one I'd take to a desert island) via a televised Proms concert with Rozhdestvensky and (presumably) the BBC SO. Must have been around 1975-77. Aside from the great music, I'd never seen such unusual conducting; IIRC in the closing coda he stood motionless, eyes closed, only moving a finger to mark each start of the ascending celesta phrase. It only added to the mystery of the work's closing.
Around 1982 I discovered Maxwell Davies through Rozhdestvensky's (again televised) Proms premiere of the 2nd Symphony. Still have that premiere on cassette, and prefer it PMD's own recording on Collins Classics!

RIP.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Schnittke's Faust Cantata received its UK performance at the 1990 HCMF, on 24th November (the composer's fifty-sixth birthday - the composer was presented with a large birthday cake when he took his bow, which the ravenous conductor and composer both polished off backstage). The opening work was the UK premiere of his Ritual, for which the English Northern Philharmonia needed to hire four sets of Tubular Bells. On the official history of the Festival, no other work is mentioned in that concert - nor did Schnittke ever return to appear at the Festival - and I can't find any reference to any of hisViolin Concertos, but Rozhdestvensky did conduct the Northern Sinfonia at that year's Festival in the World Premiere of the Concerto for Piano 4 Hands, in which the soloists were the wives of the conductor and the composer.


I can't find any reference anywhere to any work by Bruckner or Mahler ever featuring in the HCMF.

[Once Was 4]

Thank you - I must be confusing two gigs then. But the violin concerto was definately on the programme; the 'rank and file' violinist who had to play a duet with the soloist (Georgy Pauk) was a particular friend of mine. I will trawl my box of stuff and try to see if I still have the programme.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My introduction to Shostakovich was his Symphony No.4 (still the only one I'd take to a desert island) via a televised Proms concert with Rozhdestvensky and (presumably) the BBC SO. Must have been around 1975-77. Aside from the great music, I'd never seen such unusual conducting; IIRC in the closing coda he stood motionless, eyes closed, only moving a finger to mark each start of the ascending celesta phrase. It only added to the mystery of the work's closing.

- my first encounter with both the work and the conductor, too; at one point even sticking his tongue out at the Contrabassoon! I wonder what happened to that video?