Otto Klemperer conducts Beethoven's 6th Symphony "Pastoral"- The Storm

[violinplayer26]

was für ein leidenschaftsloses, langweiliges, unkreatives und unwürdiges Dirigat !

[LUNROCK12]

wonderful

[U235hexafluoridedude]

God Bless Otto.

[mesothorium]

is it me or is he just waves that stick backwards and forward without giving actual directions to orchestra? :D

[135yearswaiting]

@mesothorium Conducting is just not waving a baton in the air, Klemperer said "One conducts with the eyes and the head" by this time he was 85 years of age he had suffered a lot, from a young age he had been a manic depressive,he had to leave Germany because he was Jewish and live in America which he hated. He survived a serious brain operation in 1939, then he nearly died from an infection. He suffered strokes, a burning, falls so at 85 he was tired and frail, but still produced great sound.

[mesothorium]

@135yearswaiting im not denying his quality, but yeh now you mrntion his age... i kinda understand ;)

im just used at seeing abbado

[135yearswaiting]

@mesothorium I like Abbado very much too, he certainly moves the stick around. I would love to have seen Beethoven conduct apparently he jumped around and would have made Abbado and Bernstein appear motionless. He was the same at the piano ,wild flourishes when he had finished a section. One evening two boys stood either side of him whilst he played the piano with candelabra so he could read the music ,in one floursh he knocked one boy out.The other one was left like a boxer dodging blows.

[ellandelachapelle]

@135yearswaiting Yes watching Klemperer I´ve become convinced that conducting is really a MENTAL thing. (he often does virtually nothing. And the orchestra still sounds brilliant.)

[135yearswaiting]

@ellandelachapelle Exactly, some conductors like Bernstein almost had a nervous breakdown in public to get the sound HE wanted, Klemperer when he was young was quite active waving a baton around may be not Bernstein style but quite actively. Later on he physically could n´t do this and as I wrote in an earlier comment he used his head and eyes. Watch Klemperer from the front so you can see his face rather than the back of his head and you should see what I mean.

[wks1978]

@mesothorium A lot of conductors do that.

[anaklasis]

Two people disliked this because they are afraid of storms.

[60ECg]

Great orchestra and conductor.

[pitbull2005]

Nice to see Margaret Thatcher playing at 1.10

Klemperer makes Mravinsky look like Speedy Gonzalez!

[skrie]

@pitbull2005 fucking lol :D

[billyguns2]

The greatest storm since Toscanini's!

[EineAlpensinfonie]

1:50-2:10 Egmont like!

[Klemperer]

Wonderful. I only own the 1964 performing of the Beethoven 9, and had no clue

there was a late video from the "Pastorale" - after all Klemperer was 85 then :)

[JohnLowe86]

Thank you -- as someone wrote, Klemperer's Beethoven sounds as if it were carved out of granite.

[CaptainBluebear08]

Klemperer really was rock 'n roll...!

[anaklasis]

amazing