Who are your favourite five conductors, seen live.?

[Petrushka]

Only five? Oh dear, well here goes...

Karajan
Bernstein
Solti
Haitink
Böhm

I'm going to cheat and name another five as I couldn't possibly leave out

Abbado
Tennstedt
Previn
Colin Davis
Wand

I've met all of them except Karajan.

[Alison]

What's Bernie H conducting on Berlin DCH ?

I am amazed at some of the choices but don't think trashing opinions is called for here!

[amateur51]

I'm amazed no-one has mentioned Sir Michael Tippett whose initial downbeat was oft-accompanied by a bellowed "GO!"

[Beef Oven]

Sinopoli
Abbado
Wand
Boulez
Sir Colin

.

[Petrushka]

What's Bernie H conducting on Berlin DCH ?

I am amazed at some of the choices but don't think trashing opinions is called for here!

BH has a fair bit in the Berlin DCH, Alison. Bruckner 5, Mahler 7, Brahms VC, Bartok C for O, Lutoslawski 4. Worth getting a 48 hour ticket when you have a few days off so you can watch.

[teamsaint]

I'm amazed no-one has mentioned Sir Michael Tippett whose initial downbeat was oft-accompanied by a bellowed "GO!"

now THAT i would have loved to see.

(The Ramones used much the same technique).

[EdgeleyRob]

What's Bernie H conducting on Berlin DCH ?

I am amazed at some of the choices but don't think trashing opinions is called for here!

I had a listen to this over the weekend Alison.

http://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/concert/286/haitink-zimmermann-kurt%C3%A1g-brahms-bart%C3%B3k

courtesy of the free pass mentioned here

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?8654-War-Requiem-BPO-Rattle

Pretty good it was too.

[amateur51]

now THAT i would have loved to see.

(The Ramones used much the same technique).

There was film of Tippett rehearsing with Leicestershire Schools Youth Orchestra on youtube with several prime examples of "GO!" but they seem to have disappeared

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I am amazed at some of the choices but don't think trashing opinions is called for here!

Don't forget that choices should be restricted to conductors the poster has 'seen live' (for which I read as being there in the concert hall rather than viewing on tv) so that may explain the absence of particular favourites. The conductor I most regret not seeing 'in the flesh' was Leonard Bernstein. I narrowly missed out on getting to see him conduct the LSO in Candide, which turned out to be one of his final engagements.

It would be interesting to know if there was a particularly memorable concert/ work for each of their top five conductors. My five (today - I could probably come up with a completely different list tomorrow) would be:

Georg Solti - Mahler 5 at the Barbican (my first time there, nearly got lost), as well as a wonderfully humane, mellow account of Simon Boccanegra at the ROH

Claudio Abbado - especially for his Brahms/ Mahler Berlin Phil prom and a shattering Mahler 3 with the Lucerne FO

Roger Norrington - (I can imagine the eye-rolling in some quarters here) seen many times, but his Schubert 9 with the LPO was revelatory, edge-of-the-seat stuff (and I'd only booked because of the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream in the first half...)

Valery Gergiev - often underwhelming in studio recordings but live - in the right repertoire - fantastic. I could cite many, many examples, but a searing Shostakovich 4 at the Proms, a Pictures the climax of which nearly felled the Barbican (which would have done us all a public service), and a Scheherazade/ Firebird with the Philharmonia which will go down as the greatest single orchestral concert I have ever witnessed.

Semyon Bychkov - an underrated conductor, but he delivers great results whether orchestral (anyone who can draw such an incredibly fine Alpine Symphony from the BBCSO deserves immense credit) or operatic - splendid in Wagner (much finer than Pappano) and as good as Pappano in Verdi (in Don Carlo he drew very different colours from the ROH orchestra than AP). His Verdi Requiem at the Proms was unforgettably intense.

[Thropplenoggin]

Semyon Bychkov - an underrated conductor, but he delivers great results whether orchestral (anyone who can draw such an incredibly fine Alpine Symphony from the BBCSO deserves immense credit) or operatic - splendid in Wagner (much finer than Pappano) and as good as Pappano in Verdi (in Don Carlo he drew very different colours from the ROH orchestra than AP).

That's reassuring - I'm seeing him in Tristan und Isolde at the Proms next month. I do like some of his recordings very much: his Strauss, Brahms and Shostakovich are impressive, and I've heard good things about his Mahler 3 (not heard it yet- it's not on Qobuz and goes for silly money on Amawon).

His name also presents him with the opportunity for some famous last words - Life's a Bychkov and then you die.





Seems there's a live performance on YouTube with the same forces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMYVlHSciq8

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

leinsdorf
Rattle
Previn
Andrew Litton
Rozhdestvensky

What did you see Leinsdorf conduct, bbm, and where?

[Barbirollians]

Don't forget that choices should be restricted to conductors the poster has 'seen live' (for which I read as being there in the concert hall rather than viewing on tv) so that may explain the absence of particular favourites. The conductor I most regret not seeing 'in the flesh' was Leonard Bernstein. I narrowly missed out on getting to see him conduct the LSO in Candide, which turned out to be one of his final engagements.

It would be interesting to know if there was a particularly memorable concert/ work for each of their top five conductors. My five (today - I could probably come up with a completely different list tomorrow) would be:

Georg Solti - Mahler 5 at the Barbican (my first time there, nearly got lost), as well as a wonderfully humane, mellow account of Simon Boccanegra at the ROH

Claudio Abbado - especially for his Brahms/ Mahler Berlin Phil prom and a shattering Mahler 3 with the Lucerne FO

Roger Norrington - (I can imagine the eye-rolling in some quarters here) seen many times, but his Schubert 9 with the LPO was revelatory, edge-of-the-seat stuff (and I'd only booked because of the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream in the first half...)

Valery Gergiev - often underwhelming in studio recordings but live - in the right repertoire - fantastic. I could cite many, many examples, but a searing Shostakovich 4 at the Proms, a Pictures the climax of which nearly felled the Barbican (which would have done us all a public service), and a Scheherazade/ Firebird with the Philharmonia which will go down as the greatest single orchestral concert I have ever witnessed.

Semyon Bychkov - an underrated conductor, but he delivers great results whether orchestral (anyone who can draw such an incredibly fine Alpine Symphony from the BBCSO deserves immense credit) or operatic - splendid in Wagner (much finer than Pappano) and as good as Pappano in Verdi (in Don Carlo he drew very different colours from the ROH orchestra than AP). His Verdi Requiem at the Proms was unforgettably intense.

Bychkov will have to go some to match Pappano's conducting of Tristan in the ROH a couple of years back . He is indubitably a great opera conductor though . Despite the immensely irritating insertion of the Craig Revel Horwood repeat of Act 2 - which sent me to the bar - Bychkov conducted a wonderfully moving and fresh Boheme at Covent garden last year .

[gurnemanz]

What did you see Leinsdorf conduct, bbm, and where?

Question not addressed to me but it reminded me of a memorable Stravinsky/Brahms Prom from my youth with Ms Haendel on great form in a bright red dress.

[gurnemanz]

Bychkov will have to go some to match Pappano's conducting of Tristan in the ROH a couple of years back . He is indubitably a great opera conductor though . Despite the immensely irritating insertion of the Craig Revel Horwood repeat of Act 2 - which sent me to the bar - Bychkov conducted a wonderfully moving and fresh Boheme at Covent garden last year .

We loved his Tannhäuser at ROH a couple of years ago.

[Pabmusic]

All seen more than once (to confirm the initial impression, I suppose):

Boult
Haitink
Previn
Handley
del Mar