Posted by Richard on September 16, 2001 at 22:19:06:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Best recording of Till Eulenspiegel? posted by js on September 16, 2001 at 21:27:12:
In all of this posting you haven't recommended a recording of Til to get, only one not to get. I went to the official Cleveland Orchestra website, and Gail Williams is not listed at all. Perhaps they haven't updated their personnel roster. If she is principal horn there, Chicago's loss is Cleveland's gain. And I will even go so far as to say I prefer her approach and overall style to the aforementioned player. I was always partial to the Farkas/cso approach, and unfortunately few people outside of Chicago in the early 60's were able to appreciate Frank Brouk who played principal on an interim basis until they finally settled on Dale Clevenger. As impressive as Dale is, I have continued to prefer the darker, unforced vibrancy of the Farkas days.
Your point on the original Fantasia is well made. Several months ago I made a similar posting about the next generation surpassing the last, and got clobbered, and I hadn't even made invidious comparisons about specific players. Similarly, the 2001 New York Philharmonic is a much better orchestra than the 1961 NYP, although fans of certain key players from the earlier period will be enflamed to read this statement.
Unfortunately, the best schooled, accomplished, and motivated players are only part of the equation, as was brought home in the Cleveland telecast of the reopening of Severance Hall. My impression of Dohnanyi as a repressive control freak was confirmed and validated. He's great at a "sound piece" like Ligeti's Atmospheres, but the finale section of Ravel Daphnis 2nd Suite. . .You have to see and hear the same music by Munch and the Boston Symphony (ca. 1960) on the Great Conductors video to see Munch in unabashed ecstasy in the same passages where Dohnanyi's only concern is that the trumpets won't play too loud.
And you're right, players like Myron Bloom, who have had highly successful careers and enjoy fiercely powerful followings need no protection from me or anyone else. But as a player who has done and continues to do some free-lancing at the periphery of the New York scene, and works a day job, I have developed a healthy respect for those players who had great careers, and held down big difficult jobs, whether I'm their biggest fan or not.