He expressed some fairly salty opinions in the course of a fascinating interview with Suzy Klein. George Szell - lucky he didn't kill him. American orchestras - terrified of making mistakes, where's the music. Erich Kleiber - "father of Carlos Kleiber - the real Kleiber" [Eric, that is...]. Schubert 8 - "I cannot die every day" (things he performs only rarely). Worth a listen if you missed it.
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ear grabbing in the extreme, what a privilege to hear him speak freely and well done Ms Klein for getting it just right
well worth hearing againAccording to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. -
... this was excellent. O how I love him!Comment
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As someone without a Radio Times - when was this programme on, link please?Comment
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Voilà Madame: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...s_Harnoncourt/Originally posted by Anna View Post
I shall listen to the podcast."...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Queen Anna now has two cloaks upon which to step across the puddle of insufficient information.
Wot gents we is, vints me old mate
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Fank you, you is both werry fine young gennulmen, werry fine indeed, and I will forthwith step across the proffered cloaks into the unknown and listen.Originally posted by Caliban View PostQueen Anna now has two cloaks upon which to step across the puddle of insufficient information.
Wot gents we is, vints me old mateComment
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Pardon me for getting in between you two
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Why doesn't Suzy Klein do programmes like that more often? It took me back to the good old days when we had a radio channel called Radio 3 and talks were intelligent, slightly provocative without creeping to your subject, wistful yet fresh.Comment
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One of the most fascinating interviews I've heard in a long time - my only regret is that it was only 45 minutes! There was a very humble quality about Harnoncourt that I found really touching.Comment
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Originally posted by Chris Newman View PostPardon me for getting in between you two.
Why doesn't Suzy Klein do programmes like that more often? It took me back to the good old days when we had a radio channel called Radio 3 and talks were intelligent, slightly provocative without creeping to your subject, wistful yet fresh.
Let's hope that SK and her producer take note - PRAISE OVER HERE, Suzy K - more of the same please 
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Very interesting - what a nice chap he seems to be.
What exactly did he report Klemperer saying about Szell? I couldn't catch it despite repeated listening.Comment
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He needs to get his 'facts right' about the Chicago ( and other USA symphony orchestras) and their brass sections.
It is NOT correct to say that those brass sections use 'shorter tubes' or 'shorter instruments' ( compared to the Viennese orchestras).
The horn sections of the CSO, NYPO and Cleveland Orchestra for at least the last 50 years have used double horns in F and B flat. In the USA there has always ( for those 50 years) been an emphasis on using the F horn ( 12 feet long) as the 'basic' instrument, using the shorter Bb 'side' only for the high octave and a half.
Ironically the VPO and VSO horns in the 1950s-1960s when required to do anything remotely 'difficult' have always resorted to the 'short' ( 6 foot) F horn for greater accuracy, e.g. the legendary Gottfried von Freiberg playing Mendelssohn's 'Nocturne', or the (Decca) Vienna Octet's recording of the Spohr octet, whose 1st horn Josef Veleba used a Vienna horn crooked in A ( shorter tube) rather than the 13 foot E horn specified by the composer.
Today's superb horn players of the VPO play anything and everything on their Vienna horns crooked in ( 'long', 12 feet) F!
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"Szell? .. Forget him" ( at 12.03min on listen again)Originally posted by Vile Consort View Post
I don't think I'll be forgetting Nikolaus Harnoncourt.Comment
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I won't forget Harnoncourt or Szell, they've both given such pleasure for so long...Originally posted by Pegleg View Post
I recall Rattle saying of Szell and the Clevelanders once -"a conductor and orchestra who actually believed that perfection is possible"...
I gathered he did not entirely approve of such a concept... that "perfection" may best be viewed as an ever-receding goal...Comment
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