Kurt Masur

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Neumann was there from 1964-68 and Masur from 1970-96 if Wikipedia-en is quoting its sources accurately. (What happened in 1969 in regards the Leipzig Gewandhaus I don't know- a protracted search committee or something like something like something &c&c&c, I'm guessing.)
Not having read much on the orchestra or even heard a sampling of their recordings and broadcasts between e.g. their earliest ones and 1970-odd, I'm in no position to judge to what extent Neumann had an effect on the orchestra (and why Neumann - who I do rate!! - in his 4 years deserves more credit than Konwitschny (who I gather is underrated, which I expect I'd find is true...) who was there from 1949 to 1962.)

(Or is this "compared to the Konwitschny days" rather than compared to the Abendroth WW2 days? I guess this outsider is, like Ekaterin to Miles, please saying

"unpack!"

[chill319]

I was thinking about Konwitschny, too, Eric. I was listening to his ca. 1960 recordings of the Schumann symphonies with Leipzig the other week. Without getting into a different subject, and any "retouching" aside, the Schumann symphonies inevitably reveal how ably a conductor balances his different sections and how ably the sections respond -- in other words, how disciplined and responsive an orchestra is. Leipzig does quite well in these recordings, which compare favorably to Kubelik and the Berlin PO. And it's not because the symphonies were old hat. The critic/musicologist Joseph Kerman told me in the late 1950s that he thought the Schumann symphonies, then rather unsung, were much better than their reputation. And Konwitschny was apparently hearing (or thinking) the same thing at that time because it was then that (by his own report) he took them up in earnest.

I have vinyl imports featuring Neumann and Leipzig from the 1960s. Although (surprisingly) the Telefunken engineering quality is not up to Lyrita's 1960s standards, the playing is passionate and convincing. Less refined than orchestras playing under Karajan, perhaps, but close to the level of the Leningrad PO under Mravinsky -- perhaps the most rehearsed orchestra of all time.

So it's not clear to me when the "former glory" of the orchestra was lost, but Herr Masur seems to have had a darned good orchestra to start with.