Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Conductor

Leopold Stokowski on WWFM Today

In just one half hour, get ready for LEOPOLD!

It’s all-Stokowski between 2 & 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 18, 2017
Louis Frémaux Dies at 94 Obituary Notice

I can’t find a single obituary posted on the internet in English (there are two in French and Dutch), but news has broken that conductor Louis Frémaux has died. Frémaux made many fine recordings with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which he served as principal conductor from 1969 to 1978. He also acted as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1982. Frémaux died at his home last Monday. He was 94 years-old. He is the second nonagenarian French conductor to die this year. Georges Prêtre passed in January at the age of 92.

Frémaux conducts Francis Poulenc’s “Stabat Mater”:

And Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 1”:

March 26, 2017
Toscanini at 150 The Maestro’s Rage & Resistance

Today is the 150th birthday of Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the most famous conductor of his time. At various points in his career, he was music director of La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and finally the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Radio broadcasts of the latter brought him into millions of American homes. Celebrated for his intensity, perfectionism, and alleged fidelity to the score, he was equally notorious for his rafter-rattling temper tantrums.

Ironically, he despised authoritarians, refusing to conduct in Germany while Hitler remained in power. In his homeland, he was beaten up by brownshirts and had his passport confiscated for his repeated refusal to conduct the fascist anthem “Giovanezza.” He also worked closely with violinist Bronislaw Huberman in support of the Palestine Orchestra, made up of Jewish exiles from fascist Europe.

Toscanini confided to a friend, “If I were capable of killing a man, I would kill Mussolini.” It sounds to me like he could have been borderline more than once.

Hear him rage, with translation, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdi0SFyXwKg

A report of an earlier tantrum, which led to a lawsuit, in the January 18, 1920, edition of The Washington Post:

http://fonderiausa.com/toscanini-in-a-rage/

March 25, 2017
Remembering Skrowaczewski: A Life in Music

Stanisław Skrowaczewski has been part of my life for over 30 years. The conductor and composer died yesterday at the age of 93.

Skrowaczewski, born in Lwów (then in Poland), was forced to abandon his dream to become a concert pianist after sustaining a hand injury during World War II. Nevertheless, music served him well. By 1946, he had already begun his conquest of the great Polish orchestras, becoming music director in turn of the Wrocław, Katowice, and Krakow Philharmonics. He also studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.

He made his American debut conducting the Cleveland Orchestra at the invitation of George Szell. This led to a music directorship with the Minneapolis Symphony, beginning in 1960 (the organization was rebranded the Minnesota Orchestra during his tenure, against his protests). After 1979, he maintained a long relationship with the orchestra as conductor laureate. For many, it would have been considered an honorary title, but Skrowaczewski really did return just about every season to conduct.

He was also principal conductor of the Hallé Orchestra from 1983 to 1992. He served as artistic adviser to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1997, and in 1988 he was composer-in-residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s summer season at Saratoga. His composition, “Passacaglia Immaginaria,” was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1997.

As a budding record collector, I cut my teeth on a number of Skrowaczewski’s recordings that were issued on the Vox label. I still find his Ravel to be particularly fine. I am also partial to his recordings for Mercury, including an “Italian Symphony” framed by some unusually fleet outer movements. In concertos, he accompanied the label’s most distinguished soloists, artists such as Gina Bachauer, Byron Janis, and János Starker.

Later, I discovered his Bruckner recordings with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern (now on Oehms Classics), interpretations that render the composer’s student symphonies with as much logic and dignity as his mature works.

Skrowaczewski lived a long and productive life. He conducted his last concert (in Minnesota) in October. I will do my best to honor him today, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

Skrowaczewski conducts Bruckner’s 9th in Frankfurt:

February 22, 2017
Georges Prêtre Renowned Conductor Dies at 92

Even as I am in the process of honoring the musicians we lost in 2016 on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com, I learn of the first major musical loss of the new year. The conductor Georges Prêtre has died.

Prêtre studied under André Cluytens, among others, at the Paris Conservatory. He made his conducting debut in Marseilles in 1946. He was director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris from 1955-1959. There, he gave the premiere of “La voix humaine” by Francis Poulenc, a composer with whom he would become closely associated. He went on to conduct at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and La Scala, Milan.

He was a regular at the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1959-1971. He was music director of the Paris Opera for the 1970-71 season. He later became principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony, from 1986-1991.

Prêtre was invited to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in its popular New Year’s Day concert twice, in 2008 and 2010. To date, he is the only French conductor to have done so.

Among his other notable achievements, he conducted the world premiere of Joseph Jongen’s “Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra,” with Virgil Fox and the Paris Opera Orchestra, in 1959.

Prêtre was 92 years-old. It is with regret that I bid him adieu.

January 5, 2017

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