Word: conductors
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Does the world really need another conductor of Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler and the other immortals? If his name is Klaus Tennstedt, the answer is a fortissimo yes. Unknown to the majority of American music lovers, the former East German maestro has become one of the most sought-after guest conductors in the U.S. Watching, the onlooker may wonder why: on the podium the man often resembles a stoned stork. Hearing his music is another matter: Tennstedt elicits a sound with the startling ring of rightness. Indeed, his musical logic may be the most profound since the late Otto Klemperer...
...Opera, then picked up guest engagements in Europe and America. Tennstedt made his U.S. debut in December 1974, conducting the Boston Symphony in Brahms and Bruckner. The complex, granitic Eighth Symphony of Bruckner was hardly an easy choice for a newcomer, but the performance made it clear that a conductor of the first rank had arrived. The Boston had not sounded so brilliant in years. Subsequent appearances - topped by a prodigious Beethoven Ninth Symphony last summer at Tanglewood -confirmed his reputation...
...although he has been given some splendid singing actresses to work with - Régine Crespin, Shirley Verrett, Betsy Norden, Maria Ewing. As Blanche, the rich-voiced Ewing emerges as a genuine comer in her blend of inner anguish and, at the end, heroic resolve. In the pit, French Conductor Michel Plasson shapes the music with enough loving deftness to underscore the fact that Dialogues is one of the few masterpieces of 20th century opera...
...appeal to a wide audience, thereby foregoing the lesser-known though equally deserving works. The Boston Symphony is fortunate in having the satellite Boston Pops (which is composed primarily of Symphony players) to gross a huge annual sum. Through record sales (Arthur Fiedler has sold more records than any conductor in the world), television appearances, cocktail longesque "Evening At Pops", Esplanade concerts, Arthur Fiedler wrist watches and all manner of red-white-and-blue paraphernalia honoring Boston's "Most Outstanding Citizen", as Fiedler was names several years ago, Pops has been able to financially sustain both itself and its host...
...representing numerous ethnic groups was upset about the Inauguration Eve concert in Kennedy Center. The stars include Actors John Wayne and Paul Newman, Actresses Bette Davis and Shirley MacLaine, Comics Elaine May, Mike Nichols and Redd Foxx, Athletes Muhammad Ali and Hank Aaron, Satirist Chevy Chase, Soprano Beverly Sills, Conductor Leonard Bernstein. Yet the Ethnic Cultural Inaugural Committee complained that the cast "doesn't reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of America." Most of the carping, however, centered on invitations and tickets. Some 300,000 "general invitations" on soft eggshell paper and colorful 16-page guides to the festivities...