Word: soltis
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...from a 1953 series of radio broadcasts from Rome in mono sound that ranges from only dim to adequate, this is a Ring that every Wagnerian will at least want to hear, and probably own as a low-priced but high-keyed contrast to excellent latter-day sets by Solti and Karajan...
Occasionally Goodman will admit the existence of a little ingenuity on the part of others. Bernstein? "He revived the Philharmonic. He created a new interest in music by his enthusiasm and energy and unique approach." Georg Solti? "Fantastic dynamics. I seldom go to concerts, but you could not pay me to stay away when Solti comes to New York with the Chicago Symphony." More often, Goodman is a flinty patriarch who seems to live by his own view that the conductor is seen, but the timpanist is heard. Mengelberg? "Very quirky and picky. He would rearrange the orchestra when...
...major orchestra was a dedicated maestro's proudest castle. It no longer is." Where one castle used to suffice for a Toscanini or a Koussevitsky, now only two-or more-will do. Pierre Boulez now jets between the New York Philharmonic and London's BBC Symphony, Georg Solti between the Chicago Symphony and Orchestre de Paris, Zubin Mehta between the Los Angeles and Israel Philharmonics, Lorin Maazel between London's New Philharmonia and the Berlin Radio Orchestra; Maazel will also conduct the Cleveland Orchestra beginning next fall...
...recording is a knockout, fully comparable to London's history-making Ring cycle. Conductor Georg Solti, today's top conductor of Wagner, makes the opera brilliant and unabashedly grand. As Venus, Mezzo-Soprano Christa Ludwig seethes with eroticism, suggesting a world of impossible sexuality. Soprano Helga Dernesch as Elisabeth, Wagner's virginal opposite to Venus, is the perfect embodiment of pinched Victorian purity. Best of all is Tenor René Kollo, a German pop singer metamorphosed into a Heldentenor, who sings Tannhäuser with a gleaming tone, power, and a dramatic force unequaled since Lauritz Melchior...
Furtwängler was totally different -a very Germanic, mystic type who managed to impose his almost religious view of music on the players. This resulted in absolutely superb performances too. During the '20s and '30s, Furtwängler and Toscanini were the greatest conductors. Now Georg Solti and Herbert von Karajan are the greatest, and in somewhat the same way, with Solti comparable to Toscanini and Karajan to Furtwangler...