Here's something you might be interested in.
"The conductor has one arch enemy to fight. Routine. There's no denying that in daily life it has its advantages but it plays the most deadly role in music"-Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Toscanini referred to Furtwängler as an amateur of genius. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the emphasis was on amateur.
For his part, Furtwängler referred to Toscanini as a lousy time-beater. These two titans of the early and mid 20th Century never reconciled their beliefs about music, and indeed, their relative adherents still continue to battle.
In some respects Toscanini and Furtwängler were alike. Both started off in music as something other than conductors. Toscanini was a cellist while Furtwängler was a pianist and composer.
Both conducted mammoth pieces of music for their initial foray into conducting. Toscanini conducted Aida at age 19 while Furtwängler conducted Bruckner's Ninth Symphony at age 20.
Both lived under brutal dictators during distressing times but their approach to music could not have been any more different.
Toscanini was a tyrant on the podium and it is accurate to say orchestras played under Toscanini. With Furtwängler, orchestras felt as though they played with him in a duet of equals.
Furtwängler was said to have had no ego and was constantly trying to master the internal game of a composition. Toscanini wanted every, single note played correctly based on a metronomic understanding of the music--hence Furtwängler calling him a time-beater.
This is where Furtwängler's battle with routine was fought. He always strove to bring his own life and experience to a composition while still upholding what he interpreted to be the intention of the composer.
He never wanted to give a routine performance based on metronome markings.
An indication of Furtwängler's sensitive nature comes to us from a story from his youth. At age 16 Furtwängler was staying in Florence with his archaeologist father.
He and his friend decided to visit a Medici chapel that had been designed and sculpted by Michelangelo.
Before entering the chapel they agreed not to speak to each while in the presence of Michelangelo's masterpieces. Furtwängler understood as a 16-year-old that he could only bring himself to art and any commentary he might be tempted to provide would be useless chatter.
I think I learned that last week but here is a teenager understanding the intimate and unspeakable aspects of immortal art.
Furtwängler quietly and humbly brought himself to each piece of music he conducted. Genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYbb5KZYDg&playnext=1&list=PLBD53020DB02D4CE7&feature=results_video
"The conductor has one arch enemy to fight. Routine. There's no denying that in daily life it has its advantages but it plays the most deadly role in music"-Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Toscanini referred to Furtwängler as an amateur of genius. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the emphasis was on amateur.
For his part, Furtwängler referred to Toscanini as a lousy time-beater. These two titans of the early and mid 20th Century never reconciled their beliefs about music, and indeed, their relative adherents still continue to battle.
In some respects Toscanini and Furtwängler were alike. Both started off in music as something other than conductors. Toscanini was a cellist while Furtwängler was a pianist and composer.
Both conducted mammoth pieces of music for their initial foray into conducting. Toscanini conducted Aida at age 19 while Furtwängler conducted Bruckner's Ninth Symphony at age 20.
Both lived under brutal dictators during distressing times but their approach to music could not have been any more different.
Toscanini was a tyrant on the podium and it is accurate to say orchestras played under Toscanini. With Furtwängler, orchestras felt as though they played with him in a duet of equals.
Furtwängler was said to have had no ego and was constantly trying to master the internal game of a composition. Toscanini wanted every, single note played correctly based on a metronomic understanding of the music--hence Furtwängler calling him a time-beater.
This is where Furtwängler's battle with routine was fought. He always strove to bring his own life and experience to a composition while still upholding what he interpreted to be the intention of the composer.
He never wanted to give a routine performance based on metronome markings.
An indication of Furtwängler's sensitive nature comes to us from a story from his youth. At age 16 Furtwängler was staying in Florence with his archaeologist father.
He and his friend decided to visit a Medici chapel that had been designed and sculpted by Michelangelo.
Before entering the chapel they agreed not to speak to each while in the presence of Michelangelo's masterpieces. Furtwängler understood as a 16-year-old that he could only bring himself to art and any commentary he might be tempted to provide would be useless chatter.
I think I learned that last week but here is a teenager understanding the intimate and unspeakable aspects of immortal art.
Furtwängler quietly and humbly brought himself to each piece of music he conducted. Genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYbb5KZYDg&playnext=1&list=PLBD53020DB02D4CE7&feature=results_video