Strauss: Tod und Verklärung / Harding · Berliner Philharmoniker

[AlexLustigOfficial]

Fantstic !!!

[GigiBitchi]

@AlexLustigOfficial Do you mean fantastic? :P

[AlexLustigOfficial]

Fantatic !!!

[mobile507]

what horn is the first chair trombone player and what key is it in? thanks!

[MrGorius]

I heard that at the Berlin Philharmonic, you normally have to conduct by heart. Is that true?

[jrwhorn2626]

Watching these videos is kind of frustrating for horn players sometimes. The horns are roaring away the whole time and the camera shows them ONCE.

[bobareebop]

I think Strauss was like 24 when he wrote this. Interesting to compare this musical "take" on death with "Four Last Songs" which he wrote 60 years later.

[pointreyes6]

poor conductor, wrongly put infront of a great orchestra

[ICLAS0000]

No hay palabras para decir lo maravillosa que suena la Orquesta. ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡bravo¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ sois los mejores.

[Observer585]

Most musicians from fine orchestras prefer that the conductor not come between them and the music. They want the beat and not a whole lot more. The finer the orchestra, the truer that statement. That said, whose Mahler and whose whatever become more an exercise in which conductor's display of plumage influences your ear the most. I have performed with some of the most prominent conductors in the world and perform worst under those with the most distracting histrionics, i.e. interpretations.

[beethovenboy]

@Observer585 I agree with you somewhat, conductors can and often do intrude between the orchestra and the music but a conductor is just a tool, they can be used to construct or tear down. Yes, there are gestures and styles that just don't flow with the music but there are also those which resonate with and enhance the energy.

[Observer585]

@beethovenboy It's a leadership thing. If your musicians have respect and trust for your intentions and interpretation, their playing will be more responsive. If you are a jerk, you could drop your drawers at the climax of Ravel's Bolero and your players will hardly look up. The best kind of conducting, imo, is when you have so communicated the spirit of the piece during rehearsals, that your presence on the stage during the performance is hardly even necessary.

[GregHales]

This performance is ok but not great. I base this on the conducting not the playing.....the best video of this work is Karajan-Berlin. Karajan's view, ideas, the long lines, how he hands the climaxes, etc put's Harding to shame. Haitink would have been better to do this with Berlin.

[MARISOLDELMONACO]

wow! amazing sound.

[vangemis]

wonderful !

[fourwayscottage]

AAAA. 092048Z JAN 2010 Thank you for posting.......AR.

[blogallegrofurioso]

quoting billyguns....

[FungoBoy]

did Harding study with Sir Rattle? i see quite a bit of similarity of their conducting...

[BerlinPhil]

In fact, he was his assistant in Birmingham.

[GregHales]

@BerlinPhil Like Thielemann's Strauss, this does not impress me that much.

[SpottyDorsord]

@GregHales. I find Rattle's Mahler 9 and 10 to be too "Mahlerised", he pulls and twists the music into a caricature of Mahler, and the musical argument becomes contorted and stretched. I think Rattle's Beethoven cycle is one of the best, his Schubert 9, my favourite, his Brahms is great too (a touch of the Mahler problem again though), but not Mahler. Harding's M10 is so subtle and compact in expression; Harding has an economy that no one else of his generation has. I think.

[SpottyDorsord]

@GregHales. I think Rattle's main challenge as an artist is to control his "dynamic range" in every sense from recording balance to emotional and artistic philosophy. His talent is wide, precocious and versatile, and it requires a low yield in order to not become atrophic, contrived and ineffectual. Such talent has a tendency to spread thin and fast.

He's my fav conductor about though.

[GregHales]

@SpottyDorsord Rattle's Sibelius is very good as well. I would like to see him do a full Nielsen cycle with Berlin....he likes Nielsen and did all of the symphonies with CBSO (though not for recordings). I agree that at times he tries to touch on everything but does not go more into depth of one composer or style....maybe in 20 years his Beethoven will be better.

[GregHales]

@SpottyDorsord I actually am not a big fan of Rattle's Beethoven yet...the way you feel about his Mahler 9 and 10, I feel about his Beethoven....it lacks displine. For "modern" Beethoven I go with Abbado, for earlier time Karajan or Szell. His Schubert 9 is fantastic and I saw it live while they were on tour about a year or so before the recording was made. Love his Brahms very much. I like his new Mahler 9 much more over Vienna. Rattle's Beethoven a work in progress, much work to be done.

[elmusikoloco]

@FungoBoy It´s true. I think he studied with Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado

[classicalisdabest]

Amazing!

[charliesmillton]

I can hear Liszt's symphonic poems in this...with some Wagner thrown in for good measure.....not really my style....I really can't get into Strauss' music...

[billyguns2]

Who on earth is Daniel Harding and how was he able to be allowed to conduct the august Berlin Philharmonic? Oh, that's right; the autocratic control and high standards of Herbert Von Karajan are no more. :-(

[atomicmrpelly]

@billyguns2 TeeHee burn!

[FriendlyCroock]

@atomicmrpelly = TeeHee burn! = stupid

[atomicmrpelly]

@ FriendlyCroock = Your comment = Pointless, arrogant and downright rude.

I agree with billyguns2, Harding only conducts these great orchestras because he got lucky with a good agent.

[SpottyDorsord]

@atomicmrpelly

I think Harding's DG Mahler 10 is the best recording made. I'm not the only one who thinks that.

Though I'm sure your view regarding his agent is true, isn't that just how things work? Wouldn't good agents look for good talent?

[atomicmrpelly]

Good point good point! I can't decide whether I genuinely don't like him, or I'm just jealous!!!

[GregHales]

@SpottyDorsord Rattle's 10 with Berlin, blows it out of the water.

[EttasFavourites]

This oh so beautiful composition cannot be listened in fragments, then it is impossible to get into that strong river, taking you in that experience where it is all about: dying, the battle from the lower self, the fearing one, with the higher Self, Love, to surrender.... to experience the openening of Heaven... God.

Therefore this is just like a piece of a puzzle for those wo don't know it, a piece of a painting, but which one?

Though I always love your choices: this is an impossible one.