The Vienna Philharmonic’s longest serving conductor
OrchestrasThe Vienna Philharmonic has just issued a new book on its 55-year relationship with Herbert von Karajan, dating from his debut in 1934 to his death in 1989.
In the opening paragraph it mentions that one living conductor overtook Karajan’s long-service record in 2016.
Any idea who?
UPDATE: It’s…. Zubin Mehta.
Zubin Mehta?
Both Mehta and Barenboim, I think.
As Zubin Mehta first conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in 1961, my guess is that he is the one who overtook Von Karajan’s record.
Zubin? or Barenboim. They met eachother with Abbado when they were teenagers or young adults.
Daniel Barenboim? Came first to Vienna to play as a very young pianist.
I’m not sure, I think it was more the double bass. he talks about it in his autobiography and his father was a very good violinist. But I guess Zubin can play the piano like all the opera conductors.
Sorry I was talking about Zubin not Daniel of course
It has to be Mehta.
Living composer … in 2016 … Zubin Mehta?
Zubin Mehta?
Zubin Mehta
I believe its Zubin Mehta.. am I right?
Zube or Pretre?
Temirkanov in St Petersburg?
But I guess this means VPO only.
Muti is on the fast lane.
How fast does the fast lane have to be?
Let’s do the math: Meha surpassed Karajan in 2016, Muti is celebrating his 50 years of collaboration with Vienna in 2021, Muti would have to outlive Mehta by 12 years and still conducting, so for example, if Mehta were to die this year, Muti would have to still be conducting at 2033 at the age of 92.
He only needs to beat Karajan.
Zubin Mehta is irrelevant to a direct descendant of Toscanini.
Zubin. And Barenboim must be very close too.
1 year of Karajan is worth 5 years of Mehta.
Quick: name one concert or recording of Mehta and Vienna that comes to mind.
See?
I’ll reformulate that: 1 Karajan year = 10 Mehta years.
Listen to the two Turandots. Different leagues!
The conductors didn’t do the singing, did they?
Schmidt Symphony 4 for a kickoff but your point is well made, Zubin is no Karajan………
For Tchaikovsky and Mahler no doubt Zubin is better (Did you hear what Zubin have done?). And I don’t about the personality and the behavior of both men.
I think not.
mehta was not the worlds greatest.
Same thing for Karajan I think but I have a lot of record of him I hear very frequently
Mahler 2 (with the VPO) from the 60s is highly regarded.
10/10 on classics today: “the result has weathered the decades effortlessley. A must-hear”
Mahler 2 and Bruckner 9 are very good with Zubin imo.
I concur.
But the question is: what does VPO want to prove with this publication in 2021?
That joining the NSDAP twice (spring 1933) and conducting Tannhäuser for Hitler’s birthday can be forgotten or forgiven?
This book came out last year in German. It’s just the English translation in 2021 that is new.
not forgiven
Karl Böhm, surely?
Surely Karl Böhm died 35 years before 2016.
Boulez?
Can’t be Boulez because he died Jan 5, 2016, and he did not conduct Vienna in the first 5 days of the new year, so if he had broken Karajan’s record, he would’ve already done it in 2015.
Signed, Mary, the keeper of death records of all conductors
Norman: and the answer is? Bet it’s Mehta. But length of engagement does not necessarily equal quality of results. He truly found his level conducting the Three Tenors gigs, which hardly required probing musical or technical prowess, IMHO.
Buy the book!
Accompanying singers requires great musical and technical prowess. This applies to both instrumentalists and conductors.
Zubin I think
Had to have been Sir Adrian Boult..
According to the VPO archives, he conducted the orcestra twice, in 1933 and 1935.
Daniel Barenboim: he first appeared with the VPO as a piano soloist in 1965, as conductor in 1989.