Word: conductors
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Haitink, who had been conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam for more than twenty years, led the BSO in a performance of the Prelude to the First Act of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnburg, the Sibelius Violin Concerto, and Brahms' First Symphony. Kremer joined the orchestra as soloist in the concerto...
...opera houses in the world, only Bayreuth can mount a new production of the entire Ring in a single week. This summer the program has attracted more than routine interest because it is the one year in seven when a new Ring cycle debuts. In addition, the conductor for the first time is James Levine, the Metropolitan Opera's powerful artistic director and the leading interpreter of Wagner on the international scene ever since Georg Solti largely retired from theatrical work. Levine's partners are Alfred Kirchner, an experienced European opera and theater director, and set and costume designer Rosalie...
...slow. Certainly he chooses rapture rather than excitement. In the Festspielhaus, with its marvelous acoustics, every instrument is audible and clear. Under Levine's baton the music seems translucent, and the melodies play themselves. "It is as if I am standing in front of a treasure chest," the conductor says, "and the idea is to draw it all out where the listener can hear it and feel it and get involved...
...nine year-old boy, spellbound by his first musical experience at the Concertgebouw, rises to become the orchestra's principal conductor at just 35 years of age. A little more than 25 years later, the dream comes to an end when Bernard Haitink decided to end his celebrated tenure with the Concertgebouw. Now, six years later, the classical label Philips documents Haitink's discographic achievements by compiling and re-releasing six of his symphonic cycles, namely Brahms, Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and Schumann...
...conductor's work could be named a touchstone for musical integrity and honesty, it would be Haitink's. But by the very virtue of being the reference point, it precludes any claim at being truly exceptional. If Giuseppe Sinopoli is slightly curdled milk, and Carlos Kleiber five-alarm jalapeno peppers, then Haitink must be of the bread-and-butter variety--filling, but does it taste great...