I have a couple of pieces performed by Christoph Von Donhaniyi and like them. Another conductor who I like and not mentioned very often is Sakari Oramo. I loved him on the proms and have a DVD of him conducting. Wonderful.

 

Here's a topic, conductors who don't get much love on TalkClassical.
I am not a musician, nor do I play one on TV. But I listen to a lot of music and there are conductors that I really like that don't get much love here. So here are three conductors that get little love here. Are there others that you feel are slighted on this site?

#1 Sir Georg Solti: I really like much of his work. I think he was an excellent conductor with wonderful symphonies. But on TalkClassical one would think that the Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, etc. were crazy for allowing him to run their orchestras for so many years and to allow him to record a multitude of music for them.

#2 Christoph von Dohnanyi, especially with the Cleveland Symphony: I have quite a few pieces by him and his orchestras and really like his direction and view of the music that he oversaw.

#3 Manfred Honeck with the Pittsburgh Symphony: The music that the Pittsburgh Symphony has put out in the last decade is wonderful and, from what I read, the musicians of that orchestra think that he has taken them to another gear that they have not seen before. Plus, his recordings with the PSO are terrific, sonic-wise.

Solti is pretty much a household name in the Classical world as far back as I can remember. I think Solti appeals to a lot of people and I've never heard anyone say he was a terrible conductor. He did a lot of good recordings. His Wagner is still highly respected. Much of his Opera recordings in general are highly rated. His Brahms cycle is very good. He did good Beethoven, Mahler, Bartok, etc. but the keyword there is "good". I wouldn't fault someone if all they had was Solti's 70's Beethoven cycle as they could certainly do worse, and it was a "good" cycle. But they could also do better as there have been other performances committed to disc that were "great" or "excellent".

Christoph von Dohnanyi I agree with not being as popular as he deserves to be. He was a great conductor with top notch Mendelssohn, Brahms and Beethoven cycles. He was also excellent at Ives, Schumann, Mozart, Dvorak just of the top of my head. Other than some awful Mahler recordings he usually made great to excellent recordings and should be more widely listened too.

Manfred Honeck hasn't been around and recording as long as the other two but I feel he is becoming more and more popular with current classical listeners. Indeed he has done some very good work recently.

I don't really have anyone to add at the moment as I can't think of anyone that is criminally underrated per say. I'd have to see some other picks...

 

Solti is pretty much a household name in the Classical world as far back as I can remember. I think Solti appeals to a lot of people and I've never heard anyone say he was a terrible conductor. He did a lot of good recordings. His Wagner is still highly respected. Much of his Opera recordings in general are highly rated. His Brahms cycle is very good. He did good Beethoven, Mahler, Bartok, etc. but the keyword there is "good". I wouldn't fault someone if all they had was Solti's 70's Beethoven cycle as they could certainly do worse, and it was a "good" cycle. But they could also do better as there have been other performances committed to disc that were "great" or "excellent".

Great job of "damning with faint praise". Rob Cowan in his Guinness 1000 guide picks Solti as a top choice in several works, e.g., Mahler #8, and Bruckner #1, #2. I'm not sure if I will eventually agree with Rob, but they are also my choices for the moment...

 

Here's a thought. Antal Dorati. Not one of the legendary big names, but he did a good job with several major orchestras, kept e.g. Bartok in the public eye, made a stack of recordings that introduced lots of people to CM. And his 1969 recording of Sibelius' Luonnotar with Gwynneth Jones was utterly superb.

 

Paul Paray is in the same league.

 

I'm gonna throw Neumann and Leinsdorf into the 'sadly neglected' mix. Neuman has made some excellent recordings, especially his 2 Dvorak cycles and Leinsdorf's Mahler 1 & 3 recordings are similarly impressive (plus my current favourite Beethoven 9). Totally agree about Honeck. His Mahler, Dvorak and Beethoven Reference recordings are generally superb. Ivan Fischer rarely gets a mention on here either but I have lots of his recordings and his Beethoven and Mahler are very impressive.

 

I think Solti appeals to a lot of people and I've never heard anyone say he was a terrible conductor.

I know two from the top of my head, can't name names though.

 

I don't mind if you name names.

I only dislike most of his Wagner, Verdi, and Mahler though. I actually like some of his later Wagner (Meistersinger 2 and Tannhauser are both very good, Lohengrin pretty decent) and his Mozart is pretty decent.

When I listen to his recordings, the problem is that instead of thinking of Aida's love for Radames or Isolde's love for Tristan, instead I'm thinking of the most passionate love of all--Solti for his brasses. I picture him in an empty room surrounded with horns, a glass of red in hand, the Barry White on the hi-fi...

 

Arturo Toscanini.

Probably because many of the younger posters have never become acquainted with his work.

He gets little if any respect around these parts.

 

The problem is that Toscanini's recordings are in pretty awful sound

 

小澤 征爾, Ozawa Seiji is a conductor that is a riddle to me. Whatever I hear under his baton, I don't like. It seems TC has the same opinion.

Vladimir Ashkenazy I do regard as splendid when he plays the piano (all of it), but as a conductor he is so wobbly wavering... He's not often mentioned in TC.

Charles Dutoit is forgotten on TC, but not by me.

 

Yeah. It was disappointing when Ozawa got the BSO position with Charles Munch and even Erich Leinsdorf, preceding him.

 

No one's mentioned Karajan yet?

 

I'll put it straight as my view. Everything Karajan did has a ''foul odour'' of ''I hate u nasty Jews''. While I'm not offended personally, I never listen to Karajan (and try to even turn him off on the radio) and there are far more interesting and involving conductors in the same or different repertoire. Why should I, as a Jew, have to hear about him when there were (and are) far better musicians?

This is only my opinion and I know people will disagree, but I don't want there to be any narcisstic comments about Jews on this forum.

 

Which Karajan? The 1950's London Karajan or the late 70's-80's Berlin Karajan?

 

People seem to admire Karajan's early work; it's the later stuff that doesn't get as much love here. Then again, that may be entirely justified.

 

Gary Bertini. I know I'm always championing his Mahler cycle (which is excellent) but he made a number of other very good recordings (Berlioz Requiem, Ravel Daphnis et Chloe, Debussy La Mer, etc). I really rate his Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique and Carnaval Romain too (but not every reviewer did).

 

Other than Bernstein, and maybe Levine, many American conductors don't get much mention. Andre Previn, Lorin Maazel, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop. Schwarz has recorded a lot of American composers. I suppose Slatkin isn't too exciting, but Maazel and Previn are pretty solid.

 

Other than Bernstein, and maybe Levine, many American conductors don't get much mention.

What about Michael Tilson Thomas? Some of his Stravinski and Shostakovich stuff is great. I think he even got a grammy for the former if I remember correctly

 

Having seen Previn many times during his years as MD of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, his work could be decidedly mixed. That which he liked and felt a connection with were done very well, many other pieces came across as decidedly mediocre. Having said that, I do think well of Previn for his conducting of Vaughan Williams, Rachmaninoff, Debussy amongst others.

As to Maazel ... no comment.

 

I agree with Dohnanyi. Really has some fine recordings of Dvorak and Tchaikovsky with the Cleveland Orchestra. He is actually the only really top-tier conductor I've seen live so far; I saw him conduct Tchaikovsky's 6th with the Chicago Symphony two years ago. One of the best experiences of my life.
My second choice is Andre Previn. A lot of his recordings become my standard. Love his Berlioz and Ravel, and his Shostakovich is surprisingly good (his 5th with the Chicago Symphony is stunning). There's a lesser known Symphonie Fantastique he did with the Royal Philharmonic that is my favorite recording of the work.

 

I agree with Dohnanyi. Really has some fine recordings of Dvorak and Tchaikovsky with the Cleveland Orchestra. He is actually the only really top-tier conductor I've seen live so far; I saw him conduct Tchaikovsky's 6th with the Chicago Symphony two years ago. One of the best experiences of my life.

I couldn't let Dohnanyi go without mentioning hiis Beethoven cycle which is technically superb, too (could do with a bit more emotion / grit but that's a teeny personal grumble for what is a beautifully recorded and played set, especially the even numbered symphonies).

 

No one has mentioned Celibidache?
His name comes to my mind.

 

Helenora is the high priestesses for Mr Celibidache.

 

I don't see much about Wilhelm Furtwängler on TC.

 

I do agree with both of your comments:
Furtwängler and Toscanini pretty much cover opposites sides of the wide spectrum that is called conducting (at least for the 20th century). With both, anything that you hear could be placed somewhere between the two.
And, indeed, it would be nice if we could see more these names around here.

As usual, just mho.

 

How about Willem Mengelberg, he made the Royal Concertgebouw orchestra famous.

 

Toscanini still has lots of admirers, but he lived from 1867 to 1957 , and there are not too many people alive who are old enough to have experienced his conducting in the flesh .
But during his lifetime and some years after, he was worshipped as an almost godlike figure , by so many prominent music critics and others .
He's best known for his recordings, made late in his long life, with the legendary NBC symphony for RCA , but like many other people, I've never been too fond of them, and many said his best performances were live with other orchestras .
The NBC recordings have always struck me as rather mechanical, joyless and stiffly regimented , and I'm not alone in this . But many have said you had to have heard him in his earlier days, when he was much more flexible and spontaneous .
Just compare the recordings he made with the New York Philharmonic for RCA with the New York Philharmonic when he was music director in the 1920s and 30s to see how different they are from the NBC symphony performances . I have these on a 3 CD set , and they include his legendary Beethoven 7th, plus the Brahms Haydn variations , the Haydn "Clock " symphony , the Dukas Sorcerer's Apprentice , plus overtures and preludes by Rossini, Verdi and Wagner .

 

I totally love his Beethoven Cycle recorded with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1939. It's sound quality I think is really ok considering it being recorded in the interbellum!

I also like it's recording style: very dry, no reverb, like it's recorded in a small acoustic room or cellar or something. Every single instrument sounds as if you're right next to it. Totally different from the recording styles that we hear these days, which to me too often sound too thin and with too much reverb.

And for his conducting style: he's totally furious, I don't think many composers have this high tempo's. The orchestra sounds as if it's blowing the symphony to pieces. Maybe not for all but for me it was a revelation, being used to Karajan and others.

I bought the remastered version of the complete cycle (1939) on I-tunes.

Here's the first movement of the 3th:

 

Don't see much around here of the great Charles Munch. Legendary in French AND German repertoire with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

 

I think that outside of his opera recordings, James Levine is very underrated. Some of his orchestral recordings are amongst the finest that I have heard. I have recently been listening to Fabio Luisi's recordings of Richard Strauss and Franz Schmidt and these are landmark ones, in my humble opinion. I have previously seen very little love for him on this forum. Semyon Bychkov is another one, as is Paavo Järvi, whose Beethoven cycle is the best modern one that I have come across. I actually thought that he would have been a very good choice for the Berlin Philharmonic, after Rattle , and was surprised that his name didn't come up more often.

Somebody earlier mentioned Charles Dutoit and I would definitely agree with this. Furtwängler was also mentioned, which surprised me, as his name often comes up on here; he is also my favourite conductor, simply unique.

Final one and particularly apt, given his recent passing, is Sir Neville Marriner. He covered such a huge repertoire that inevitably not all of his recordings were going to be the best ever but in my opinion, they were invariably very good and many were magnificent.

 

Semyon Bychkov (seconded)
Mark Elder
Gianandrea Noseda

...and, of course, my avatar ... Barbara Hannigan - who else both conducts and sings at the same time? Whether it be Berg, Sibelius, Gershwin or Mozart. I am waiting for her to do Mahler 4!!

 

I didn't consider Sir Mark Elder, who also happens to be the music director of one of my local orchestras, the Hallé, in Manchester. He is extremely charasmatic and generally brings out the best in the Hallé , although I was a little disappointed with their recent performance of Beethoven's 9th, compared with the performance of his neighbour, Vasily Petrenko, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, last year. Petrenko is definitely somebody who is going places.

I don't know Gianandrea Noseda and only know Barbara Hannigan from the following:

She's certainly unique, as well as photogenic! I hadn't actually realised that's who your avatar was.

 

I'm going to nominate Anton Nanut and Antoni Wit
I think I'll also mention Marin Alsop.

 

I'm going to nominate Anton Nanut....

Absolutely.
One of the great conductors, imo.
His symphonic recordings of Bruckner 8th, Beethoven 7th, Shostakovich 7th and Mahler 6th are superb and can come head to head with those of any better known conductor, imo.

 

Benjamin Zander, listen to what he could do with a bunch of kids playing Mahler!

 

To me Jansons is certainly one of the greatest living conductors. His music making is really well paced - he builds tensions and climaxes as well as anyone ever - and is not at all showy. So many of his recordings are excellent.

I also second Oramo as consistently worth hearing.

And I agree that anyone who looks down on Solti or Bernstein for whatever reason needs to listen again. Karajan was an interesting choice. I avoided him for years and do not like to get to know a piece from his performances. But once I know a piece I feel sure that Karajan will have something special to say about it.

So many other conductors are worth mentioning ...

 

To me Jansons is certainly one of the greatest living conductors. His music making is really well paced - he builds tensions and climaxes as well as anyone ever - and is not at all showy. So many of his recordings are excellent.

Jansons' Bruckner was mostly good, his Dvorak excellent and his Beethoven cycle was superb. One of the best in a crowded field, for me. If you haven't heard it then grab it. Superb stuff.

 

Rafael Kubelik.

 

Oh yes, I forgot about Kubelik! (Which only shows how much he belongs on this list.) Some of his recordings stand up against any competition: Mahler 1st, Má vlast, Meistersinger, Parsifal.

 

There are plenty of Russian and British conductors whom I feel are quite overlooked, including:

• Svetlanov
• Kondrashin
• Nebolsin
• Fedoseyev
• Samosud
• Rozhdestvensky
• Gauk
• Golovanov
• Mravinsky (sort of)
• Handley
• Thomson
• Hickox
• Leppard, Raymond

Some of the French conductors are not so lucky either (Plasson, Pretre, Fournet, Jordan (Swiss), Lombard).