Hi everybody!

[Obradovic]

Hi everybody! Male, 39, coming from a lately much maligned but culturally very rich country. I consider any day spent without listening to music a wasted day! Favourite composers? Too many! Where to start? Let'me sum up mentioning Bach, Beeth, Mahler, Verdi and Wagner. Tried to learn play the piano but frustratingly a cat would have been more talented than me... Avid collector though as I am (just under 10000 cds) I believe more in the live experience of music, the miracle just being happening in front of your very eyes and ears. Therefore eagerly awaiting the concert of Philharmonia Orchestra under Lorin Maazel next Saturday 15 in Athens, I'd like to glean some opinions about the prominent maestro before expressing my own! Thanks beforehand for your attention and welcome (Forgive my use of english as I have only set foot on english soil for just 2 hours at Dover, England)

[bhodges]

Hello Obradovic, welcome to GMG (and your English is fine). I agree with you about experiencing music live (when possible), and heard Maazel many times when he was here in New York with the Philharmonic. My experiences with him have been mostly positive. He's a great technician, and can make a group really sound magnificent; when he's not-so-good he tends to micro-manage every phrase. For me, his takes on Ravel's La valse and Rapsodie espagnole were frustrating (though well-played). But I heard all of his recent Mahler cycle live and liked pretty much all of the symphonies. He also did a terrific Ravel L'enfant et les sortilèges (one of his specialties) and a great concert version of Richard Strauss's Elektra.

What is he doing on the 15th?

--Bruce

[david johnson]

hi!  i'm gald you're here 

[Obradovic]

Hi Bruce, sorry, I forgot to mention the program: Tchaikovsky's Pathétique and Brahms' 2nd. It will be my second live contact with maestro Maazel, the first was back in 1993 conducting here in Athens the Bavarian RSO in Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet and Dvořak's New World which I remember as rather exciting. Interesting that you also liked his Mahler. Did he again, in New York, run the 3rd for 110 minutes?? In his Vienna PO recording in Sony, lauded elsewhere, he stretched the first movement to 38 minutes. It'was mercilessly dragged to its limits, disfigured. He applied rather broad tempos in the other movements too and the whole work sounded endless. Even the late Bernstein, in his DG NYPO 3rd, not a speed-seller himself was more volatile! Not that tempo itself is the determining factor but at this instance... it was! Imagine Celibidache what would have made of this symphony... You're very lucky living in the Big Apple. Every April I visit the Carnegie Hall site to preview the coming season's program, just to...salivate! Greetings!

[flyffdzd]

He also did a terrific Ravel L'enfant et les sortilèges (one of his specialties) and a great concert version of Richard Strauss's Elektra.

[Hollywood]

Hi there Obradovic. Greetings from Beethoven's Vienna. Welcome to the forum. I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

[Karl Henning]

Welcome, Obradovic!

[Lisztianwagner]

Welcome to the forum and have a nice time here.
So glad to see Wagner, Beethoven and Mahler in your list, they're among my favourite composers too! Hope you like Liszt as well.

Ilaria

[Obradovic]

He also did a terrific Ravel L'enfant et les sortilèges (one of his specialties) and a great concert version of Richard Strauss's Elektra.
[/quote/]

Yes, you mean the DG recording coupled with L'heure espagnole which is fine too. Thanks for posting

[Obradovic]

Hi there Obradovic. Greetings from Beethoven's Vienna. Welcome to the forum. I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

Thanks for your welcome! And if you could find me New Year Concert ticket...you could win my girlfriend! (not that I would gladly give her up to you but she would want to marry you!!)

[North Star]

Welcome, Obradovic!

Daniel has been busy lately (as if I haven't been), so I'll just say this for him: I'm glad you like Mahler!

[Obradovic]

Welcome to the forum and have a nice time here.
So glad to see Wagner, Beethoven and Mahler in your list, they're among my favourite composers too! Hope you like Liszt as well.

Ilaria

Hi Ilaria, thanks for your welcome. Yes, I like Liszt, only 5-6 volumes (some transcriptions) of the complete Hyperion edition aren't on my shelves! One of the best live concerts I have attended in my life was ca.15 years ago in Athens with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer in an all-Liszt mouthwatering program: Tasso, lamento e trionfo, 3 Episodes from Lenau's Faust and A Faust Symphony! Yes, 2+ hours with the finest Liszt and Lisztian interpreters. I wish you were there... 

[Lisztianwagner]

Hi Ilaria, thanks for your welcome. Yes, I like Liszt, only 5-6 volumes (some transcriptions) of the complete Hyperion edition aren't on my shelves! One of the best live concerts I have attended in my life was ca.15 years ago in Athens with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer in an all-Liszt mouthwatering program: Tasso, lamento e trionfo, 3 Episodes from Lenau's Faust and A Faust Symphony! Yes, 2+ hours with the finest Liszt and Lisztian interpreters. I wish you were there...

Glad to know it.  Really, Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra?? Ah, you were so lucky, it must have been wonderful; what a great programme they played!!

[Obradovic]

Welcome, Obradovic!

Daniel has been busy lately (as if I haven't been), so I'll just say this for him: I'm glad you like Mahler!

Hi Daniel, thanks for you welcome! As for Mahler let me give you some numbers: I have 9 Firsts, 9 Seconds, 10 Thirds, 8 Fourths, 16 Fifths, 17 Sixths, 8 Sevents, 7 Eighths, 19 Ninths and 5 Tenths (including the completions). Yes, I know, aren't too many but I'm still only 39 years old... Now an apology: I forgot to mention Sibelius as one of my favourites. BIS has made me very happy the last 2 decades... you know what I mean...

[bhodges]

Hi Bruce, sorry, I forgot to mention the program: Tchaikovsky's Pathétique and Brahms' 2nd. It will be my second live contact with maestro Maazel, the first was back in 1993 conducting here in Athens the Bavarian RSO in Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet and Dvořak's New World which I remember as rather exciting. Interesting that you also liked his Mahler. Did he again, in New York, run the 3rd for 110 minutes?? In his Vienna PO recording in Sony, lauded elsewhere, he stretched the first movement to 38 minutes. It'was mercilessly dragged to its limits, disfigured. He applied rather broad tempos in the other movements too and the whole work sounded endless. Even the late Bernstein, in his DG NYPO 3rd, not a speed-seller himself was more volatile! Not that tempo itself is the determining factor but at this instance... it was! Imagine Celibidache what would have made of this symphony... You're very lucky living in the Big Apple. Every April I visit the Carnegie Hall site to preview the coming season's program, just to...salivate! Greetings!

Thanks for all of this, and I'm not surprised about the Vienna Mahler 3 recording "mercilessly dragged to its limits." (I've only heard one or two in that series, but not the Third.) I do recall some of his recent NYPO Mahler performances being a bit long, but I suspect the main reason I (mostly) liked them is that the orchestra itself just sounded so good, and I confess to being seduced (sometimes) by an orchestra's sheer technical prowess.

Anyway, that program should be very interesting and please post something on how it goes.

--Bruce

[Obradovic]

Glad to know it.  Really, Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra?? Ah, you were so lucky, it must have been wonderful; what a great programme they played!!

Yes, superlative playing and a luxury to have Hans-Peter Blochwitz as the tenor soloist. Despite the long duration of the whole concert the final ovation was overwhelming! Deservedly so!

[Obradovic]

Anyway, that program should be very interesting and please post something on how it goes.

--Bruce

Of course! Greetings!

[Lisztianwagner]

Yes, superlative playing and a luxury to have Hans-Peter Blochwitz as the tenor soloist. Despite the long duration of the whole concert the final ovation was overwhelming! Deservedly so!

Yeah, it's not hard to imagine it!

[North Star]

Hi Daniel, thanks for you welcome! As for Mahler let me give you some numbers: I have 9 Firsts, 9 Seconds, 10 Thirds, 8 Fourths, 16 Fifths, 17 Sixths, 8 Sevents, 7 Eighths, 19 Ninths and 5 Tenths (including the completions). Yes, I know, aren't too many but I'm still only 39 years old... Now an apology: I forgot to mention Sibelius as one of my favourites. BIS has made me very happy the last 2 decades... you know what I mean...

No, I'm not Daniel - member madaboutmahler is whom I was refering to. Although I do like Mahler, too.
You're probably not going to win contests here with those numbers, but that doesn't mean they aren't crazy 
I'm only 21, so haven't yet bought multiple sets of pretty much anything (except Sibelius's symphonies, of course.
Yes, although I don't think I have much beyond the Vänskä & Lahti in the 4th and together with Kavakos in the violin concerto (including the early version). I should get their tone poem box, though.

[Obradovic]

No, I'm not Daniel - member madaboutmahler is who I was refering to. Although I do like Mahler, too.
You're probably not going to win contests here with those numbers, but that doesn't mean they aren't crazy 
I'm only 21, so haven't yet bought multiple sets of pretty much anything (except Sibelius's symphonies, of course.
Yes, although I don't think I have much beyond the Vänskä & Lahti in the 4th and together with Kavakos in the violin concerto (including the early version). I should get their tone poem box, though.

Ooops! apologies for the confusion-and you have a very nice nickname! My favourite tone poems are Pohjola's Daughter and Tapiola. Give a chance to The Wood Nymph! The poem of V. Rydberg that has inspired it is extraordinary too. And multiple numbers are for collectors, not so for listeners! And I mean to listen to all my discs again and again having in mind that I'm human and not a turtle or a crow... I heard Kavakos play Sibelius Concerto live here a couple of years ago with the London SO and V. Gergiev. It is HIS concerto but the last years he tries to keep a distance from it in order to try other demanding stuff as well. A new Decca Beethoven violin sonatas cycle arrives early in 2013. But that is an other story