Lorin Maazel (1930-2014)

[alberto]

The Markevich Manfred was on Philips (I have the vinyl). Curiously his son, Oleg Caetani, cuts from the finale the "redemption" coda (like other conductors, for instance Temirkanov),

[adriano]

Russians may have strange ideas about "redemption"... Manfred would be a dangerous outsider in today's Russian politics, so let's have him be damned  . This is joke, of course, since Caetani is all other than pro Putin.
This reminds me of the Bloshoi Theater tradition, making that in productions of "Boris Godunov", the conspirative role of Rangoni (who has to sing mangificent music) is always cut, even today. Today (as in the past) this would be explicable with Putin's "treators and political enemy" paranoia.

[Amphissa]

His recording of "Pictures at an Exhibition" on Telarc LP remains one of my favorites to this day. The performance and the audio are excellent.

[adriano]

Just re-listened to Maazel's 60's DGG recordings of Ravel's "L'enfant et les sortilèges" and "L'heure espagnole" with the Orchestre National of the ORTF.
Absolutely magnificent! And what a perfect cast, what great playing and super sonics!

[musiclover]

His performances were erratic but thank goodness for that as it appears to me that if you have to repeat the same repertoire over and over you have to find different ways of approaching it. According to my London musician friends Maazel had a stick technique to admire and a brilliant mind. We won't see his like again I fear and his death leaves us with few greats of his generation still working. Haitink and the great and under rated Previn, long may they both live and continue to perform.

[eschiss1]

Just because he didn't perform  mid-to-late-19th-century/first-decade-20th-century-slightly-dissonant-at-most* unsung repertoire doesn't mean he was sticking to Beethoven's 5th over and over again either. I sense a logic hole somewhere: he wasn't performing what we most treasure, so his repertoire, if not necessarily his way of approaching it, was boring.  His list of premieres and fairly off-the-beaten-track works he performed was, near as I can tell anyway, actually rather interesting- just often outside of the range of, too late for, this forum (the occasional Mercadante work, etc., aside.)

*Yes, that's a deliberate caricature of this forum's rules - which strictly speaking not only Bax and Moeran** but even Liszt (and not only late Liszt) but others are well outside of...- but... well... just-a-little-sometimes I get a just-a-bit fed up. Apologies. Grumble...

**erm, don't get me started there.

[kolaboy]

"Overrated" is not a word I would use in reference to Lorin Maazel.

[Ilja]

@Alberto (and apologies for pushing a slight OT point in this thread): IIRC Termirkanov didn't so much cut the Redemption finale as replace the entire coda by that of the first movement.

[adriano]

Let me now do some more rehabilitating work on Lorin Maazel: Apart from his wonderful Brahms Symphonies with the Cleveland on Decca (which are being re-issued right now on the bargain Reference series), there is a limited edition of live performances of Brahms' Symphonies, Overtures and Variations with the Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks - an absolute sensation! It's on the Bayerische Rundfunk's own label - and very difficult to find. I haven't re-listened to this set for years, now I am totally enthusiastic. I dare to say, in there, Maazel is a genius; these performances from 1998 are exciting and deep.

[mbhaub]

I recall watching an interview with Maazel where he stated that his favorite composer above all was Brahms. His Brahms symphony set with Cleveland is certainly well played and recorded and for the most part he conducts them well - but typical of Maazel he fails to let loose when the music really needs it. Like the finale of the 2nd where the coda can be utterly electrifying under some (Walter NYP), Maazel puts on the brakes pulling the tempo back and leaves me less than satisfied. It was risky recording Brahms with the Szell set not that old. Other than sound quality, Maazel offered nothing to challenge the older conductor. Maazel's German Requiem (Sony) was quite good, but Klemperer still is formidable competition.