"Maestro Myth"

[PaulMB]

Just reading a book by Norman Lebrecht, "The Mestro Myth," and wondering if any of the classical cognoscenti here are familiar with it and what they think of it. It reads well, entertaining, very opinionated, but alas I'm too ignorant to know how "solid" it is.

 

[alanbeeb]

He did a TV programme based on it, was shown on BBC in the 1990s. Norman likes to be a bit of an iconoclast, but I think he's correct quite a lot of the time, a lot of the "great" conductors were showmen who cultivated their mystique more than they served the music. Things are different now.... the authentic/historically informed performance movement has forced conductors to have more respect for the score and the composers' intentions, and the way to achieve this is through rigorous musicianship.

One of the interesting points in the TV programme was Leonard Slatkin, at that time newly-appointed chief of the BBC SO, revealing that he had refused to take his fees on occasions where he felt he hadn't been good enough.

 

[PaulMB]

Thanks Alan. Interesting what you say about Slatkin, sounds a bit weird, psychologically. I can imagine the BBC accountants hoping he gives a bad performance.

 

[SteveS1]

The other way of looking at this is that wider variations of tempo, differences of emphasis and other variations of interpretation gave performances a style or character. One man's 'bringing out the grandeur' of, say, a Beethoven symphony is another's 'impossibly slow'.