Added: 4 years ago
From: Busillis67
Views: 177,908
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (204)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • Ich war dann dabei in Proben und Konzert in Stuttgart. Maestro Celibicache war auch mein Professor von Dirigentenkursen in Trier und München. Ich habe so grosse Erlebnisse und Lehre bekommen.

  • Proud to be Romanian ... Celibidache is one of the most representative musical figures in Romania.

  • celibidache for me!

  • The 'best' in a subjective sense is the one who opens a window on a work that you did not like or understand before. Celi did that for me in several works, like Beethoven's 9th, which I never liked before, but do after him.

    Bohm opened my eyes on the 7th.

    And Reiner's Chicago recording of the 5th showed me that I was looking at something astonishing.

  • Superb! A work of genius. TY B for posting

  • His sound is darker, more velvetty. Kleiber's is crispier,more cristaline. 

  • Where's the absence of dynamics or rhythm in this performance? Anyway, great as they are imho they are both outshone by Toscanini in terms of creating a fully thought-out whole.

  • Certainly when it comes to those like Celibidache, Kleiber, or similar, Ferenc Fricsay, etc. There is room on that olympian pedastal for all of them, without quibbling about Gold, SIlver or Bronze. They're all Platinum, and I would not want to do with one to the exclusion of the other. I'm sure the composers whose works they perform would agree. Its like places in that regard: no place has everything.

  • Maravillosa conducción del maestro Celibi...es increible el color, pureza y potencia de la cuerda, además la tonalidad es fabulosa,me gustan mucho los 1ros Viol. sobre todo la afinación de la nota aguda que se convierte luego en respuesta de los chelos es extraordinaria! La madera ni hablar, los unísonos son tan difíciles de lograr, respetando absolutamente la partitura en honor a Brahms. Bravísimo!!!

  • Celibidache by far.

  • DIRIJOR UNIC

  • Comment removed

  • Awesome! TY for posting.

  • un' altra cadenza, un tempo più pensato, filologicamente diverso da Kleiber ma geniale nella sua personale poetica, abbiamo avuto una stella fra noi ma non tutti si sono illuminati alla sua luce.

  • This superb reading brings to mind a passage from the Columbia Book of Classical Music, left me a lifetime ago by my grandmother, in which the Fourth was described as a deep dark well; the longer one gazed into it, the more one was able to see. 'Celi' provides all the illumination that is required - and then some.

    If, as in the 1956 classic film "Forbidden Planet," some race discovers this planet after we are gone, perhaps they will regard us by the music we left (and literature and art)...

  • A' ri : O

  • This is nice but both of Bernstein's recorded accounts (with NY and Vienna) are far more impassioned in the final episodes of the first movement. Celibidache seems rather understated here and perhaps that is what he was going for. But for me, I like this symphony more robust and weighty. Bernstein's impassioned accounts bring out the romantic spirit in this work far more convincingly, IMO.

  • I don't think you should for your opinions of "best -insert symphony name-" just by browsing youtube, there are tons of monumental recordings that haven't made it here, or are badly tagged.

  • I adore him.

  • Whatever one might prefer, Celibidache is always interesting.

    I thing this is stunning myself..

  • being raised since 1950 on the germans, i will hold my opinion until i have heard this a few times. One of the great things about YouTube, yes? hear alll the great recordings in any sequence: Kleiber's first movement, Klemperer's second, and Celibidache's third? Bravo Brahms! Bravo YouTube! World-changing medium - best since Gutenberg!

  • Kleiber!!!

  • 3:36-3:37 and 3:40-3:41, it´s Celibidache´s voice?

    Maybe the best Brahm´s fourth...

  • @javideleon24 Yes he was famous for singing with the orchestra! (especially at rehearsels.) He became quite popular in Sweden in the 60-ies. (rehearsing with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra on TV.) Everyone went around imitating him! "Tiiita tiiita tiiita!" (he also danced on the podium. Throwing his long hair around.)

  • You cannot compare artists on this level.

    Ok, Kleiber.

  • It looks to me that Kleiber performs the music and Celi sings'it.

    I'm just a common listener - not educated in music, but this is how it sounds to me.

  • I agree with busillis67,this recording is the most interesting from what I heard in u-tube

  • One of the greatest conductors of all times to most of us. To me, he's always the best, We miss you dearly.

  • The balance in this version is amazing, especially at the entrance of the second theme. I've never been able to hear all the instruments this clearly!

  • Best performance all around!!!!

  • Is this a free fall into the abyss or a walk through the meadows?

    Celebidache makes me feel that vertigo to fall.

  • Anyone knows is there the complete performance of this on youtube?

  • Karl Schad plays a wonderful Timpani!!

  • The best Brahmsian in my opinion is Eugen Jochum!..His mono set of the 1950's with the BPO on DG, is a revelation..mainly part to the magnificent playing from the Berliners.....haven't heard anything as good since...

  • Yawn.

  • Kleiber is more dynamic and rich - yes he is a great Brahmsian. But Celibidache sounds more spontaneous and emotionally free to me, which is also a desired rarity among Brahms conductors. I don't want to make up my mind on this, frankly, as many people do. I was thinking about the recording I listened to most frequently - Klemperer's cycle on EMI. In comparison, Klemperer is stronger and plainer, and the recording is very, very enduring to long term scrutiny.

  • I think that th only interperattion of Brahms IV that may be compared with the Celi version is Bruno Walter

  • I like Mravinsky & Furtwangler more, also

    Takashi Asahina, Celibidache 's Brahms N0.2 is better.

  • Simply superb. The coda, on my short list of greatest symphonic passages ever, is a paralyzing experience in Celibidache's hands. It is the very definition of intense.

  • Yawn

  • Both are excellent and there is no competition !

  • Celibidache/Kleiber, both sides of the same musical universe. Celi more objective, Kleiber more fantastical.

  • @Perseus12345678

    don't know, maybe Celi more musical, Kleiber more dynamic?

    Love them both, though, but ADORE GÜNTER WAND

  • @kateholli Gunter Wand heard his bruckner 9 and liked it. full bodied.

    Celi brucker 9 was more a complete musical universe.

  • Heard Celi Brucker 9 and liked it. It is a more complete musical universe than Wand, but liked Gunter Wand a lot.

  • Thank you Cele,this world is better place because artists like you and Brahms.

  • Reminds me of autumn, perhaps even one's final autumn...

  • the more i heard him conduct, the more i like Celibidache : p

  • Every time I listen this, I feel transported to another dimension, the dynamics are just out of this universe, thank you Celibidache for let us know what music really means.

  • Better than Kleiber - much more tension and drive, but in places just a little too accelerando

  • There is nothing common with the YouTube Kleiber's version.

    Kleiber's version is for me sterile : no tension, no dynamic.

    I am very impressed bythis one of Celibidache which is by far superior to his own recording with Munich( EMI). Philharmony .

  • a interpretation schizofrenic, great of course... the god ceh-lee-bee-DAH-kay ... anyway schizofrenic, but you know expecially in the last years Celibidache was in a other planet, from it he looks at the world like a shit full of stupid men.

  • The best Brahms nr.4.

  • agreed

  • @monicapotcovaru Hopefully not because you share the same land of birth with the conductor !

  • Pronounce it as if it were Italian: ceh-lee-bee-DAH-kay

  • ahah LOL nice!

    :-)))

    just a joke, for italians Washington is Uoscinton. Moon, Mun. WIth log "u". Moon is "Luna". How you do pronunce it it? "loona"?

  • there is a difference between Kleiber and Celibidache...one is a fantastic musicia and the other is the expresion of truth in art... Celibidache was in music what Einstein was in phisics...

  • so true. expressed my thoughts exactly. anyone know of performances of celibidache and michelangeli performing together?

  • @Perseus12345678 there is one on youtube : the ravel piano concerto

  • chell -ee-be-dark-ee.... I think

  • thanks!

  • Sounds like you're talking like Jabba the hut

  • I've so long been an admirer of Celibidache, that I've only just realised I have no idea how to pronounce his name! To save embarrassment in conversation; please may someone phonetically spell it for me? Thanks :)

  • it's ce (like in cherry) - lee- bee- da-che (like in cat)

  • @jazzlover06 tche - lee - bee - dah - ke

  • Which is better? That's a tough one. The difficulty with Brahms is bringing out the necessary "architechture" Kleiber does things differently in certain moments then most of the crowd.This is my first hearing of Celi" and it's amazing. Hearing

    balances among instruments is some of the recording's influence to consider. These two are different kinds of greatness

  • ja... Er macht viel besser als Kleiber....Kleiber machte am ende einen großen fehler...sein ROBATO ist ganz falsch

    (yes... it is better as Kleiber)

  • Kleiber und Celibidache sind so fundamental veschiedene Dirgenten dass der Vergleich mAn fast keinen Sinn macht. Wo bei Celibidache alles Klang und Phrasierung ist, ist es bei Kleiber Dynamik und Rythmus.

    Zwei voellig verschiedene Arten Musik zu machen, beide genialisch und hochmusikalisch, und beide absolut authentisch. Ich habe moechte keinen von beiden missen.

  • (in English)

    Kleiber and Celibidache are so fundamentally different conductors that comparison is almost pointless, imo. Where Celibidache is all about sound and phrasing, Kleiber is about dynamics and rythm.

    Two totally different ways of music making, both ingenious and both entirely authentic. I don't want miss either of them.

  • @herodot2 What a lovely analysis. I prefer this one but I always love Kleiber also.

  • Chelibidache sapeva dirigere molto bene Brahms. E anche Schumann.

    Mi piace meno il "suo" Beethoven.

  • Ci manchi.

  • wonderful, very natural !

  • Oh marvel... transparent yet  passionate, refined and pure poetry.

    Celibidache , usted es grande, grandioso, extraordinar, sublim. I feel proud to be rumanian......................­.

  • celibidache of course because i m listening with my heart :)

  • I like the Celi version better. I can hear ALL the instruments, with the Kleiber I was straining to hear what was in the background and it was driving me crazy. and way way way more passion with this one in my opinion.

  • I think there's no way of saying Kleiber or Celi is 'better'. They both perform very convincingly. I do prefer Kleiber however, because his interpretation is with more tenderness and vulnerability. With Celi, the sound is somewhat heavier...I am teppted to say 'more ego', but that was in his younger years ;-) But thank you for posting this so we can all enjoy the unmeasurable wealth of all those fine musicians.

  • so passionate! blows kleiber away...

  • With Celibidache I hear realy Brahms music!

    He felt the Brahms' poetry like no other.

    Thank you for posting this!

  • Maravilhoso e Ótimo. O importante é a capacidade dele ser alguém na música e não de ser chato insuportável e groso e mais. Interpretação nota 1000

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • "hideously sexist" is an understatement!

  • huh?

  • For me it´s like Kleiber made the more objective and agogically precise recording, Celi the more subjective. I must admit I´m a big admirer of Kleiber, so don´t ask me what I like more...

  • Everyone goes on about how much "energy" he brings to the performance when most of the time it can be simply attributed to a quick tempo. Celibidache understood and discussed a different and better approach to intensity that relied on sound itself and not the tempo.

  • Have you ever weighed the possibilty that the slow tempi are the result of Parkinson's disease with the Celibidache ? Equally, felt that much of what Karajan did in his old age was due to a partial hearing loss.

  • Alternatively it was possbile that Karajan was suffering from early Alzheimers. There are a couple of videos I have seen towards the end of Karajan's life where it seems the orchestra is carrying him. Incidentally have you listened to the Bernstein/VPO Brahms Four on YouTube? It blew me away and I know Brahms' symphonies very well indeed ...

  • I have got the Brahms cycle with Bernstein on LP,on CD and on DVD. And when they make paintings of it, I will buy too . I like it very much (especially the oboe). thanks for asking.

  • Yes, Bernstein/WPO is a VERY good recording of this. The relationship between the orchestra and Bernstein was incredible. I'd hate to say "best," but it is in very rarefied company, certainly. I will say without hesitation that the Wiener Philharmoniker is the best Brahms orchestra, bar none. The old obes and horns make a real difference in Brahms, and they breathe this music, having played it from the time when Brahms walked among us.

  • He didn't die of Parkinson nor of Alzheimer , he was decreasing tempo towards his age due to artistic reasons, nothing to do with illnesses , same with Karajan, those guys died with the baton in his hands.

  • Comment removed

  • This is a wonderful interpretation. Celibidache has a inner sense for underlining cumulating musical points and dynamic in order to interpret the essential and essence in music like no other conductors. His interpretation is also a reflection of the acoustic of the concert hall he is surrender by. Thank you for posting this !

  • Celi is a Genius and SPECIALIST of all orchestral masterpieces ! This level of CARE... care of each phrase and pitch is DIVINE !

  • By all accounts, Celibidache was a thorough pig of a man, but ain't nothin' gonna help the fact that this recording is brilliant.

  • Celibidache was a thorough pig ... ???

    what HAPPEND !?!?!?

  • ignorant!

  • If you watch videos of him, he comes across like a manipulative shaman, which some people think is wonderful but I think is pathological. He was also hideously sexist, to which Don "Leopieroidemant" might answer again with the mysterious exclamation "ignorant!" because he too might be some kind of musical swashbuckler or musketeer.....

  • Wonderful...

    There is no 'best' in music of course, just preference

  • yeah, best according to preference.

  • Elève de Furtwangler, Celibidache a dépassé le maitre, peut être pas en tout, mais au moins dans la compréhension de l'oeuvre de Brahms, et dans sa vision de la musique de la moitié du 19 em siècle. Celle-çi correspond bien plus à ce que je ressens de ce qu'elle doit être. Le pseudo du comment précedent "celestial" correspond assez bien à l'intensité de cette musique. Intensement céleste ! divine comme jupiter ... Alta Cultura !

  • Comment removed

  • Smooth as silk & satin

  • Celi has taken us one step closer to the composer's heart and soul once again. We missed you dearly.

  • Is the the Stuttgart or the Munich Recording?

  • maybe, I think.

    I have this one. You should buy it.

    Really great performance.

  • I have it. ;)

    I like the Stuttgart Recording of the fourth more than the Munich one - the orchestra isn't as good, but it is much more dramatic. And the hole movements are more comprehensible - in my opinion.

  • Oh, sorry.

    I have totally forgotten to answer your question.

    This is Stuttgart version, I think.

  • That's why it is so damn good. ;)

  • I have been sure that Cleiber's version is the best of Brahms' no4.

    But now I agree with Busillis67.

    Celi's version has depth and is more dramatic.

    Kleiber is a little bit cheerful and light for Brahms' no4.

    Please do not misunderstand me. I love Kleiber's version, too.

    By the way, do you hear Celi giving instructions with loud voice? :D

  • This is the best by far!

  • celibidache ist der beste musiker und dirigent den es je gab!! niemand anders sonst (bis heute nicht) gibts der musik auf so profossioneller ebene so eine bedeutung wie er!! es is t einfach der wahsinn: stücke, die schon tausendmal eingespielt wurden und sich mit der zeit immer mehr auslutschen und dadurch echt manchmal richtich nervig und schlecht klingen kann celibidache zum eigentlich richtigen und vom komponisten Gemeinten klang bringen!!

    schrecklich dass er nicht mehr das ist!

  • They are both very good...and both beautiful...I stopped looking for "the best" recording...Started stealing from every recording...Well, not the REALLY bad ones :) ahahah

  • Celi rushes the part of the coda where the theme returns in the horns - no longer as a question but as terrible, crushing, inevitable truth - it sounds smeared, the loud legato playing of the strings obscures all detail, when the theme is finally split between the horns, trumpets and strings only their part shines through. The final chords and drum roll sound hushed, conciliatory. Kleiber on the other hand drags too much in the coda especially in the late account uploaded to youtube.

  • I find excessive tempo modifications to tear apart the contrapuntal weave of Brahms' music in most cases, I prefer the intensity Klemperer finds in (relative) constancy. Every note transition feels inevitable, unshakable, there is no smearing, no wavering - in the coda you don't just hear the strings with a bit of ornamentation from the brass, you hear a myriad of voices joining in to sing a song of inevitable mortality - Brahms confirms his theme's connotation with death with the song 'O Tod'.

  • You know what Brahms have said: " Metronome and my heart just don't go together."

  • It's not like Klemperer's Brahms is metronomic, I was talking about huge tempo swings, not detail articulation.

  • Non amo molto le interpretazioni di Celibidache, però riconosco che è stato un grande artista molto preciso purtroppo non molto fedele alla partitura.

  • Just to answer to Busillis67, I can only transmit my opinion about the comparison between the Celibidache's version and the Kleiber's version. The first one, this one actually, is nearly perfect (and, please, notice that I'm not a fan on Celi) in sound, balance and perfect control of every detail. Last but not least, this interpretation is full of true filings and I was very impressed listening to it. (part one)

  • (part two) The only thing I find more in the Kleiber version (and in every Kleiber interpretation as well) is that he was able to make you sure that the music he was conducting was still alive, now, in the present. I have still this feeling every time I listen to a Kleiber recording and I think this is the reason because he's been such an unique musician.

  • Matteo7419,

    Best comment ever I read in yout Tube.

    The difference between Kleiber and other conductors is that with Carlos I can hear the music alive, with others I hear just great personal interpretations. THis is the case with this one.

  • I disagree completely. In fact, when I listen to Kleiber, I hear the interpreter instead of the music itself. Kleiber had a grab bag of tricks he would pull out to liven things up a bit, but I've never felt like he really understood what he was conducting.

  • Celibidache: the best, the only conductor ever!

  • Nobody as yet has answered my question: is Brahms a Romantic using classical structures, or a Classicist using a Romantic vocabilary? Therein lis the difference among the different approaches by conductors to his music. I like both approaches: certainly Toscanini's electric NBC recording and Furtwangler's incandescent 1948 Performance from London exemplify the two extremes. I like Victor de Sabata, Bruno Walter and William Steinberg in this music too; this one by Celibidache is quite beautiful.

  • Brahms is definitely a Romantic using classical form. He stretched the limits of harmony extensively (which is why Schoenberg loved him) while mastering classical forms (mainly sonata and variations--like the last movement of this symphony) like few have ever done. Try listening to Kleiber's recording with Vienna.

  • Strangly, the current recording on youtube of Kleiber isn't with his own orchestra, I think it with the concertgebouw in Amsterdam, I think it is from 82' or so, "a guest appearance" as such

  • Incredibile, incredibile, incredibile.....

  • Celibidache - Brahms IV just perfect! are you planing tu upload the rest of the simphony? Thank You

  • This version seems to flow slightly more naturally than the Kleiber, although I love both really. But this one gives me goosebumps and the Kleiber doesn't for some reason.

  • the sound quality is great in this video.

  • I have to go with Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.  The way that orchestra ended its phrases with such sensitivity and warmth. And the horns (Myron Bloom and the gang)...good Lord, the warmth and depth they had--it was like swimming in chocolate!!

  • Give me Furtwangler. His uncle knew Brahms personally... And his Brahms is simply outstanding. Celibidache is of course very nice! But his teacher still beats him clearly.

  • Celibidache does wonderfully long phrases instead of short episodes the way most conductors do. Notice the ends of notes. Beautiful yes? Each note is going somewhere.  This music transports me, and I mean literally. It never unexpectedly puts me down in a dangerous part of town. It takes me all the way home.

  • Thank you so much for this Brahms 4th clip. I don't know why but I'm deeply touched by this version.

    Could anyone please tell me when this was recorded? Thanks in advance.

  • I always come back to the one of Kleiber. For me it has an equilibrium difficult to compare with other versions. And when you talk about pathos and the tragic sense of the interpretation, I think that that means to make more obvious something that is already present in the music. Anyways, both versions worth my praise. Thanks for posting and for allowing us to listen another version of this masterpiece.

  • Furtwengler and Celibidache.

    Then long way no one.

    Only then Kleiber, Bernstein etc.

    And only the very last is Karajan...

    Of course, if we are talking about the very best of the 20th century.

  • Celi is greater, deeper, wiser. Kleiber is kind of artificial to me. I have worked with him when he conducted the same symphony (by the way with Celi too) and can say, that it was rather disappointing experience.

    He began with almost a genial 1st rehearsal, 2nd was a little bit less good, the general rehearsal was quite bad and the concert was... not good. Sorry. But the real genius is - to me - of course Celi. No doubt.

  • Kleiber has done great things but his Brahms 4 is hardly the best. There are many good Brahms 4 out there. Top choices are Furtwaengler and Jochum.

    As for this Celi, it sounds very promising. But I can't make a judgement until I have the chance to hear the whole piece.

  • this is a remarkable version of Brahms' fourth symphony. But it lacks the profound tragedy that only Furtwangler can conjure.

  • Much agreed.

  • incredible

  • Thank you Celi for leading us to the heart and soul of Brahms,we are forever indebted to you.

  • Sergiu Celibidache,para muchos el mayor genio de la dirección del siglo XX,nunca se de`´o grabar.Entendía la música,como un acto único e irrepetible.Cualquier grabación o filmación desvirtuaba el espíritu del acto recreador.

  • Ciertamente, y aun asi escuchamos lo que grabó y lo disfrutamos!

  • Furtwängler.

    Bernstein, Kleiber, Celibidache, Szell,

    Karajan.

  • Do you know the story that Maria Callas was interviewed while driving in a car, and then they were listening a Classic Radio and there was Beethoven 5th. She said" This conductor don't understand Beethoven style at all, wrong.

    I heard Furtwangler in Milan" it was Szell on the radio.

  • Maria Callas said: Furtwängler is Beethoven.

  • actually they were listening to beethoven's 8th on the radio not the 5th. and the interviewer's name was John Ardoin, a close friend of Callas. also, he wasn't interviewing her, but he was taking her to a doctor.

  • Thanks for the info but Szell had to have more info like Furtwangler. Well Toscanini wanted to change the style too.

  • Is it just me, or does celi borrow heavily from furtwangler's brahms 4 here? Maybe they just have a similar vision...

    Anyway, this is amazing! I love his interpretations.

  • Yes I have to say his interpretations is batter than Kleiber. Before i watched this, Kleiber is my favorite..now i gotta change. This is really amazing.

  • i totally agree with you, superb interpretation!

  • Borroing from Furtwangler is the best option possible.

    It is like playing Brahms 4th with the Brahms Score right?

    And the Brahms ideas.

  • helloimapianist you are right not surprising knowing that Celi was the second in command at the BPO when Furtwangler was the conductor.

  • This is wonderful. The best Brahms IV.1 I have heard.

  • Celibidache forever... he touch my heart.

  • Kleiber.

    ... Karajan?

    yes.

    yes.

    :-)

  • Well!should I remember guys that this is a RECORDING!and Kleiber's performance is LIVE CONCERT! for me, even if i dont like this orchestra, I prefer Celibidache's version.But also others version like Mravinsky are great!

  • @german4tea this is NOT a studio recording, its a live concert too, like Kleibers performance, Celibidache made only 4 or five studio recordings his whole live

  • ha ha

    hey Busillis! I had the exact same thoughts lol

  • of course this version is much better....

  • why better? the musicians are the one who sweat it, right?

  • Better, hands down, than the Kleiber but...I like this, the Mravinsky and best, best of all, The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell.

  • Sorry, but I have to disagree on the Cleveland/Szell recording...it should have read best, best, BEST! (Don't worry, I'm on your side!)

  • Mravinsky's version is the best