Word: abbado
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Levine is also accused of conducting too many performances, freezing out eminent guest conductors. "The weakness of the conducting staff is a manifestation of his own ego," says one disgruntled Met musician. "Where are the likes of Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Sir Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel and Sir Colin Davis?" With Levine leading 78 performances this season, there is always the possibility that the orchestra will grow stale. Says Met Conductor Jeffrey Tate: "All orchestras like guests. They see Jimmy all the time, and there is a great danger for both of them in this. They must loathe...
...ABBADO HAS A WEAKNESS for airy tunes played on glockenspiel and celesta. The tunes come and go between martial rhythms. Young Gustav, fascinated by the military, could never quite part with his recollections of parading soldiers. The march was to Mahler what the Ring of the Nibelung was to Wagner...
...composer cried after the premiere of his work. His passion for life and love, and the impending doom he felt achieves palpability in the percussion's pulse, the woodwinds' C minor arias in the third movement, and the brass' blues. Abbado's interpretation, whether instinctive or well-planned, hits the mark just like Bernstein, who pioneered the performance of Mahler's symphonies for concert-goers...
Ineffable pianissimos anticipate the loud reveilles and marches. Even Georg Solti with the Chicago Symphony (on London) cannot make the airs as sweet as Abbado does. If Solti got high with the Chicago before the 1970 release of his recording, Abbado, hardened by years of vicissitudes from fighting Mahler's Sixth, conducts the same troops ten years later with discipline and clear command...
Some listeners may not like Mahler's aesthetic in the first three movements. But anyone who tripped watching 50 helicopters roaring in with Ride of the Valkyries to get the "slopes" can't miss Abbado's finale. Get in a bathing suit and ride the surfboard on cue. Mahler, too, enjoyed swimming...