[EuroArts 2072188] Karl Böhm in Rehearsal and Performance

Wiener Philharmoniker
Karl Böhm

A rehearsal under the Austrian conductor Karl Böhm (1894-1981) was a prospect that prompted distinctly mixed feelings among orchestral musicians in Vienna, Berlin, Bayreuth and New York. He was an uncompromising, expert orchestral trainer and an unassailable musical authority, and his musicians respected and feared him in equal measure. Home viewers now have the opportunity to watch the famous Maestro rehearsing and performing Richard Strauss (1864 1949) popular tone poem Don Juan. The piece is very compact and demands extreme virtuosity of each and every member of the orchestra, which means that it is perfectly suited to a study of Böhms rehearsal methods and conducting technique. When Karl Böhm was appointed general manager of the Dresden State Opera in 1933, he began an intensive and fruitful collaboration with Richard Strauss. He conducted the world premieres of Die schweigsame Frau and Daphne, and became something of an unofficial curator of Strauss musical legacy. Karl Böhm knew his friend's music inside out. His command of the orchestral sound, his accuracy and emphasis on just the right sonority, textural clarity and subtlety of rhythm were legendary and he set the standards of Strauss interpretation. On this recording he is joined by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a 1970 recording made at the Musikvereinssaal in Vienna.

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=2072188

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Classical
• DVD
• 2072188

[watutman]

ok, well I don't understand German. If what you say is true, then I guess he was patronizing. But what a good end product.

[callasnuts]

Oh yeah? Name me one conductor who addresses the Wiener Philharmoniker with "Bitte meine Kinder!"....watch the entire rehearsal,it´s on the right in 3 clips! At a certain point he nags about a horn player until he´s told by a loud voice: "He´s playing it for the first time!",and then Böhm answers: "But he can surely count?....or can´t he?-and the orchestra responds with laughter!

[watutman]

@callasnuts "Patronising"? Huh?  You make no sense.

[callasnuts]

Fascinatingly patronising,but those were the good old days!

[watutman]

Karl Böhm still one of the best conductors ever