8pm tonight on BBC4 Details on RT or in your papers.. Eyes aren't up to all the details ATM but a heads up, anyway.
Sorry...
Sorry...
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Thanks for the reminder Salymap!Originally posted by salymap View Post"Let me have my own way in exactly everything, and a sunnier and more pleasant creature does not exist." Thomas Carlyle -
George Solti is to be the subject of another of my conductor anecdotes. Q.V "... couldn't conduct a bus" thread >>>>
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I watched the programme but I'm not sure that I learned anything new about Solti, except that he was apparently irresistible to some women. Anyway, he usually got what he wanted musically as well.
What is it about conductors?
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It was an enjoyable romp of a programme, but not deep I felt.
While Solti was alive I greatly appreciated his peace work...I imagine Barenboim was indebted to him for ideas? A lot of the impetus has vanished since, I fear.Comment
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Originally posted by salymap View PostI watched the programme but I'm not sure that I learned anything new about Solti, except that he was apparently irresistible to some women. What is it about conductors? I read somewhere that at least they normally got a fur coat out of it!
His achievements at the ROH seem beyond dispute. The only really sour note was struck by Alan Cumberland, whom I remember from numerous LPO concerts.
Yes, the programme covered very familiar ground, much of the content appeared in a film which was shown shortly before his death, around the time "Solti on Solti" was published.Comment
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Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
Mark Twain.Comment
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It didn't tell me much I didn't already know, but Lady Solti (nee Pitts) was a real fox in her day!
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My knowledge of Solti started with his work with John Culshaw et al on Decca's Ring so I was grateful for the background film and photographic footage. I knew that he was a considerable pianist from the recordings with Kulenkapff that were re-issed in the 1970s I think but it was good to reminded by the film evidence and the snippets with Murray Perahia were very instructive.
I've only watched about half of the programme - does it go into the rather wonderful TV series he did with Dudley Moore? I enjoyed that enormously because it brought out the paternal side in Solti and the child-like quality of Dudley Moore in a rather magical partnership
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am: sadly, there was nothing of the Dudley Moore programme you mentioned.
I was highly intrigued by the gap between some players' perceptions that his stick technique was useless (one of them said he'd finally worked out that the downbeat was on S's right elbow!) and the wider public perception of him as a hard, strictly metrical conducor who always got precision performances even if the soul of the music got missed.
I'm not in the latter camp, but would certainly see rhythmic precision, and excitment, as one of his key strengths. A considerable resemblance to evaluations of Toscanini, one of of his inspirations? Though I've never heard of T's players being in any doubt where the beat was
I keep hitting the Escape key, but I'm still here!Comment
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That sounds to me the very antithesis of Beecham who certainly got wonderful performances in quite a different way. I don't know what the orchestras thought of his beat but it certainly wasn't rigid.Comment
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If you want more footage, voila! : http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Golden-R...2568667&sr=8-1Originally posted by amateur51 View PostMy life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)Comment
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Just spotted the Telegraph on line - they rate the prog much higher than most of us do...
Did I miss something ?Comment
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Saly, I don't think Rupert Christiansen could have seen the documentary that was shown in 1997 which contained much of the same footage. Some new content (eg the critical bits and the flirting) but mostly familiar.Originally posted by salymap View PostComment
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As a follow-up to the documentary on Solti and to commemorate the centenary of his birth, there is a broadcast of a concert given by the World Orchestra for Peace conducted by Gergiev tonight on BBC4 at 7.30 pm:
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