[SCHLEMO]

The BSO
I've always had a soft spot for Charles Munch and the BSO that he conducted for so many years when I lived in Boston and attended lots open rehearsals where I saw him inspire the hotshots: Samuel Mayes and Joseph D. Pasquale in particular. Two of Munch's recordings with the BSO that I think are masterpieces are Dvorak's 8th Symphony and the Berlioz Requiem. The third movement of the symphony is joyfully elegant, graceful, and spirited; it is a real gem that makes me want to sway my whole body in its embrace, as my mother used to do. I was always told that Munch's forte was French music. Well that certainly is true in his nuanced rendition of the Berlioz Requiem, a perfect blend of fervor and serenity. The “Offertory's” climax is especially rousing: it always gives me goose bumps.

 

[Marsilius]

The BSO/Munch recording of Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony remains unsurpassed to this day.

 

[SCHLEMO]

I have it. You are right.

 

[MarkW]

Munch's recordings of the Berlioz overtures makes them sound like the greatest music in the world.

The BSO, first under Munch, then Leinsdorf. was my childhood orchestra, and I have a soft spot for both of them -- which says lots, because no one has a soft spot for Leinsdorf.

 

[Woodduck]

The Munch/BSO Berlioz Requiem is criticized for the amateur choir (New England Conservatory Chorus), but not for Munch's interpretation, which remains unsurpassed. And tenor Leopold Simoneau's "Sanctus" is in a class by itself.

Munch's Saint-Saens Symphony #3 remains my touchstone as well.

 

[SCHLEMO]

I always liked Leinsdorf, but the Boston Globe music critic Michael Steinberg lambasted every concert at the BSO that Leinsdorf conducted. Steinberg constantly carped at Leinsdorf's straying from the literal score. How dare Leinsdorf offer an original interpretation! Only Steinberg knew what was authentic.

 

[Albert7]

I always liked Leinsdorf, but the Boston Globe music critic Michael Steinberg lambasted every concert at the BSO that Leinsdorf conducted. Steinberg constantly carped at Leinsdorf's straying from the literal score. How dare Leinsdorf offer an original interpretation! Only Steinberg knew what was authentic.

That would be called improvisation. Not everything has to be by the book in classical music.

 

[MarkW]

I'm of mixed feelings, because I always enjoyed both Steinberg's criticism in the Globe, and his later program note writing -- but I do remember a number of complimentary reviews (Brahms' Duetches Requiem comes to mind, and the Pastoral Symphony).

 

[SCHLEMO]

I don't recall those flattering reviews. Perhaps I was at Tufts at the time, where I rarely read any newspapers.

 

[SCHLEMO]

Amateur, smamateur. The New England Conservatory Chorus in that recording is outstanding. I agree with you that Simoneau's rendition of the "sanctus" is superb, almost ethereal.