Word: leinsdorfs
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Leonard Bernstein: Beethoven's Nine Symphonies (8 disks; $35.98; Columbia). A great many complete sets of the Nine already exist: Klemperer, Karajan, Leinsdorf, Ormandy, Toscanini, Walter. But Bernstein's is the newest, and as a Beethoven interpreter he is both fiery and energetic, qualities highly necessary to this music. Calmer moments (as in the "Pastoral") now and then take on a tense, leashed-down quality that make a listener unnecessarily impatient for the storm to come. Particularly recommended to those who see Beethoven as a man with thunder in his eyes and lightning flashing from his fingertips...
...second half of the complete Mozart symphonies (the rest are scheduled for release in May) can be bettered on individual recordings by conductors like Szell, Davis or Walter. But apart from Böhm, the only first-rank conductor to produce a marathon Mozart is Erich Leinsdorf, whose performance of the symphonies (Westminster, 1967) is badly handicapped by a brassy, unresonant recording. By contrast DGG's sound is sumptuous. Though Böhm's conducting is eminently musical, the final effect is earthbound even where the music most demands seraphic sounds...
Nearly everyone in Boston-even those people whose idea of a cultural evening is an excursion to Fenway Park-is aware of the recent departure of Erich Leinsdorf from the podium of the BSO. Not too many local critics, however, have sought to delve too deeply into the behind-the-scenes conflicts at the orchestra. Those who have made inquiries either end up fired, like George Gelles, or reprimanded, like Michael Steinberg. Probably no one outside of the Symphony hierarchy is completely aware of all of the problems which face the organization at the moment, but some have become public...
Morale at the orchestra was at its lowest in recent memory when Leinsdorf departed, and the BSO, which had been one of the international greats under Koussevitsky and Munch, was trailing each of the other four major American orchestras in record sales. When RCA Victor picked up the contract for Ormandy and the Philadelphia, there were rumors that the company would phase out Boston, because of the lack of magnetism in Leinsdorf's conducting. Leinsdorf was criticized as being excessively Germanic in interpretation, and at least one orchestra member publicly stated that he would rather be conducted by a metronome...
Conflict broke out the year before Leinsdorf left, when, for the first time in the history of the orchestra, the orchestra members refused to give the traditional Christmas gift to the conductor. The animosity between maestro and players became more apparent when trumpeter Roger Voisin "stepped down" from his position in the first chair after an incident in a public performance during which he allegedly misplayed a passage deliberately to cause Leinsdorf embarrassment. With the orchestra's prestige falling apart, it was obvious that new blood was needed, and Leinsdorf's resignation was not too surprising. His successor, William Steinberg...