Musical legends

[AjAjAjH]

Today Classic FM has had a 'Classical Music Legends' day.

What makes someone - composer/artist/conductor (even an orchestra) - a legend?

Who would you put into that catagory?

For myself Sir John Barbirolli who rescued an orchestra, whose Sibelius and Elgar recordings are still amongst the finest, who although he has been dead for over 40 years is still talked about with great affection amongst the older members of today's Halle audiences.

Then I am biased - 50 years ago this month I saw him for the one and only time in my life and was hooked on concert going.

[johnb]

I used to regularly go to the Halle in the early 60s, when I was in my teens, and frequently saw Barbirolli conduct. On one memorable evening, before conducting Mahler 2, he turned to the audience and gave a short speech in that gravelly "40 fags and two bottles of scotch a day" voice.

Two of the reasons I have always felt great affection towards him, apart from often seeing him conduct, were the warmth and passion of his music making and the fact that he was flawed, like the rest of us.

Some years ago there was a programme on R3 about JB and Heather Harper was interviewed. She talked about a tour to Eastern Europe with the BBC SO. She said she hadn't really worked with Barbirolli very much and was more in the Boulez group (he was also on the same tour), but prior to leaving the UK all the members of the band were asked to take a bottle of scotch with them for JB (HH also took one)! This was the same tour that resulted in Barbirolli's Prague recordings of Mahler 4 (on BBC Legends) and the wonderful Elgar Cello Concerto with du Pre (and the BBC SO).

[french frank]

That's a lovely story - very much the stuff of legend. What makes a musical legend? Is it that they're remembered for something about them that's over and above their admired music-making? With Menuhin one thinks of the photographs of the 14-year-old with Elgar, the mysticism. With Bernstein, the flamboyant character. With (reminded by another thread) Sutherland and Pavarotti, their off stage antics.

Do retiring people become 'legends'? Where would Kathleen Ferrier (our Kath?) fit into that?

[Pabmusic]

The misuse of the word 'legend' is too entrenched to ignore, but it doesn't mean anything but 'really famous'. Therefore, someone whose name sums up a musical style, or age, I suppose. Barbirolli would indeed qualify, as would Beecham, Karajan, or any other 'really famous' musician.

Yet some fade. Denis Brain is not spoken of as often now as he once was, despite being responsible for developing horn technique in a way that others did not (no doubt Waldhorn, Hornspieler, et al, will have a view on this).

[salymap]

For me Beecham. He was certainly flawed, having a rather cruel sense of humour, mainly aimed at people who couldn't answer back, BUT there was a magic for me in his recordings and performances that is difficult to explain, but unmistakeable.

And he did a lot for the ROH, London, was always seeking to revive old works that he felt deserved it, and won the devotion of his Librarian and most members of the LPO, then the RPO.

Some pieces of music, Schubert sym 5, Overture Fair Melusine, Omphale's Spinning Wheel, must be Beecham for me. Lollipops to saviour.

[vinteuil]

... the legendary Joyce Hatto

[Dave2002]

Some years ago there was a programme on R3 about JB and Heather Harper was interviewed. She talked about a tour to Eastern Europe with the BBC SO. She said she hadn't really worked with Barbirolli very much and was more in the Boulez group (he was also on the same tour), but prior to leaving the UK all the members of the band were asked to take a bottle of scotch with them for JB (HH also took one)! This was the same tour that resulted in Barbirolli's Prague recordings of Mahler 4 (on BBC Legends) and the wonderful Elgar Cello Concerto with du Pre (and the BBC SO).

ALL the members? Just think what would have happened if he'd been conducting something really large, such as Mahler 8 or Berlioz Requiem - though Mahler 4 may not be so far behind!

[salymap]

The misuse of the word 'legend' is too entrenched to ignore, but it doesn't mean anything but 'really famous'. Therefore, someone whose name sums up a musical style, or age, I suppose. Barbirolli would indeed qualify, as would Beecham, Karajan, or any other 'really famous' musician.

Yet some fade. Denis Brain is not spoken of as often now as he once was, despite being responsible for developing horn technique in a way that others did not (no doubt Waldhorn, Hornspieler, et al, will have a view on this).

There was a new biography of Dennis Brain out a year or so ago. The book won approval from the hornplayers afaik but the radio review didn't.
I suppose he, Ferrier and du Pre come into a different and rather tragic category from people like Beecham or Barbirolli, having their careers cut short.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Arthur Foote?

[salymap]

Klenovsky ? Corno di Bassetto?

[Serial_Apologist]

Arthur Foote?

Is better than no Foote at all?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is better than no Foote at all?

[amateur51]

Is better than no Foote at all?

Truly awful

[Tapiola]

Back to "legends"...

One Friday night, when my teenage step-daughter was amenable to "chats" with this old fart, I mentioned the genius of Wagner and the idea of the total work of art (the aforementioned RW having conceived plots, libretti, music, costumes, stage action, even the conception, design and realisation of the Festspielhaus, etc etc.)

Momentarily impressed, she thought for a couple of seconds, and stated "Just like Lady Gaga, then. She's a legend..."

[french frank]

Well, here are several pages of BBC Legends: see if you can work out what makes them all 'legends'.

Rostropovich, Clifford Curzon, Stokowski, Richter ...

(Hmmm, I'm not sure how Lenny Henry and The Three Little Pigs and Other Stories got into that lists )