The Solti Centenary
Fri, May 11 2012, 11:54AM
#2
RE: The Solti Centenary
Andrew Davis - but not Colin - is a worthy successor to Solti, though not even he can match the rapt intensity of Solti in the slow movement of the 1st Symphony.
Yes Adrian, yes, you sit down. Nurse, I think it's time to call the hospital again.
Fri, May 11 2012, 12:26PM
#3
RE: The Solti Centenary
Andrew Davis - but not Colin - is a worthy successor to Solti, though not even he can match the rapt intensity of Solti in the slow movement of the 1st Symphony.
Yes Adrian, yes, you sit down. Nurse, I think it's time to call the hospital again.
Here comes another troll spouting nonsense! Have you seen the troll dolls they sell in Helsinki: they are hideously and repulsively ugly?
Fri, May 11 2012, 2:15PM
#4
RE: The Solti Centenary
Andrew Davis - but not Colin - is a worthy successor to Solti, though not even he can match the rapt intensity of Solti in the slow movement of the 1st Symphony.
Here comes another troll spouting nonsense! Have you seen the troll dolls they sell in Helsinki: they are hideously and repulsively ugly?
Yes, indeed, kalm down a bit, old man, and ceep your hair on.
Is it the high temperature, today, that causes you to rate Solti above Boult?
Who's a troll then?
Fri, May 11 2012, 3:27PM
#5
RE: The Solti Centenary
It's perfectly cool in this room and I'm clearheaded enough to see that you're an idiot with nothing of interest to contribute. Go and get yourself a cup of Old Horlicks.
603 posts? Much wind and little pith!
Fri, May 11 2012, 11:33PM
#6
RE: The Solti Centenary
It's perfectly cool in this room and I'm clearheaded enough to see that you're an idiot with nothing of interest to contribute. Go and get yourself a cup of Old Horlicks.
603 posts? Much wind and little pith!
Oh, well, I can say that of you but I do not need too because, clearly, you have provided enough evidence.
Sheesh, I merely disagreed with you, no need to get personal old man.
What a child you turned out to be. Adrian3 refers to your mental age?
Sorry, here's your toy back: Solti was, without doubt the greatest conductor of the latter quarter of the last century.
Happy, now?
Sat, May 12 2012, 3:07AM
#7
RE: The Solti Centenary
In an interview with Gramophone, Boult said he listened to a live broadcast of Solti conducting an Elgar Symphony with the LPO (I believe it was the Second) and liked it.
Sat, May 12 2012, 8:33AM
#8
RE: The Solti Centenary
As far as I'm concerned, Solti was a better conductor of Elgar than Boult or Barbirolli or, to put it another way, he shed a refreshing new light on the composer and gave him an international flavour very different from the dated, stodgy interpretations of the staid and rather dull Boult and the overly self-indulgent, slow, though not dull, Barbirolli.
Andrew Davis - but not Colin - is a worthy successor to Solti, though not even he can match the rapt intensity of Solti in the slow movement of the 1st Symphony.
Adrian, Elgar has, mysteriously, always been a bit of a closed book to me despite (literally) decades of trying. Rather like Brahms. Perhaps I'll try Solti, whom I'd never really associated with Elgar, to see if he can provide the key.
I've seen Solti many times, both in the opera and concert hall. He was, admittedly, a showman (though very far from being in the Bernstein class in this regard) but I was never less than pleased with his performances, and often very much more than pleased. I remember passages in one Mahler 6 about 25-30 years ago which was the only time in a live performance of anything that I've ever wanted the volume to be turned down - the sound he got the orchestra to produce was, entirely appropriately, savage.
In opera and choral works, he was a very sensitive accompanist - something many star conductors don't manage.
Sat, May 12 2012, 8:59AM
#9
RE: The Solti Centenary
His Soltgar is an aquired taste. He always seemed to add a certain something to his readings of Mozti and Solthoven as well.
Sat, May 12 2012, 10:56AM
#10
RE: The Solti Centenary
His Soltgar is an aquired taste. He always seemed to add a certain something to his readings of Mozti and Solthoven as well.
This Hugh chap is something of a shining wit! Ha! ha! ha!
Sat, May 12 2012, 2:08PM
#11
RE: The Solti Centenary
Not that Solti follows Elgar slavishly. It would be easy to point out dozens of divergent points, but the real difference is one of spirit. Elgar's conviction was something born of an intense creative intimacy. Solti's approach is naturally more distant— almost, one might say, more 'sophisticated'. The conviction is less prominently placed. But it is there—oh yes, unquestionably. It is the international voice—the voice that discourses Bartok, Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, Strauss to the world. It is the first time most of us will have heard an Elgar Symphony in this mood (though Kempe conducted in the South recently, and Silvestri recorded it before that). To duplicate it might take us right back to the days of the First Symphony's premiere under Hans Richter. And so, over and above all the individual excellences of a very fine performance, Solti's record is a deeply moving experience. What can a mere reviewer do beyond urging his readers—whether they know the symphony or not, whether they think they like it or not—by all means to hear it?
(from Jerrold Northrop Moore's review in 'Gramophone' - I think this critic knew a bit about Elgar, didn't he?)
Sat, May 12 2012, 2:15PM
#12
RE: The Solti Centenary
Thank you, Adrian. That's tomorrow morning sorted, then.
Sat, May 12 2012, 2:32PM
#13
RE: The Solti Centenary
Jerrold Northrop Moore's review in 'Gramophone' - I think this critic knew a bit about Elgar, didn't he?)
As he picked the Julian Lloyd Webber as his chosen recording in the Building a Library survey of the Elgar cello concerto based mainly on the choice of the strings the cello was strung with, I would have to say NO.
Sat, May 12 2012, 2:48PM
#14
RE: The Solti Centenary
Jerrold Northrop Moore's review in 'Gramophone' - I think this critic knew a bit about Elgar, didn't he?)
As I recall he was American and appeared, suddenly, on the music scene forty odd years ago with a book about Elgar.
He reviewed some discs, at great length as I remember, for Gramophone and seemed to be a knowledgeable expert on Elgar and Elgar performance.
The feeling I have is that he liked all recorded performances of his first great love or, struggled to find fault.
Where is he now, one queries?
Sun, May 13 2012, 12:13AM
#15
RE: The Solti Centenary
Where is he now, one queries?
Like Adrian3 he just recycled worn out cliches. He's in the bin.
As far as I'm concerned, Solti was a better conductor of Elgar than Boult or Barbirolli or, to put it another way, he shed a refreshing new light on the composer and gave him an international flavour very different from the dated, stodgy interpretations of the staid and rather dull Boult and the overly self-indulgent, slow, though not dull, Barbirolli.
Andrew Davis - but not Colin - is a worthy successor to Solti, though not even he can match the rapt intensity of Solti in the slow movement of the 1st Symphony.
Adrian