4,000 Romanian extras take part in John Malkovich Celibidache film
NewsA concert ‘conducted’ by the actor John Malkovich in Bucharest’s Sala Palatului was attended by some 4,000 people. Malkovich is playing Sergiu Celibidache in a biopic titled ‘The Yellow Tie’.
The film is directed by the conductor’s son, Serge Ioan Celebidachi.
I once dreamt that I was listening to a radio concert featuring Celibidace conducting Bruckner’s 8th Symphony. When I awoke, I found that I was.
LOL. I was once the lodger of a retired Anglican vicar who used to take delight in saying he once dreamt he was preaching in St Paul’s Cathedral, and when he woke up found that he was.
Bruckner puts me to sleep, too.
Celibidachs´s fault,not Bruckners´.
Of course Malkovich will offer it up well. He looks more like Eschenbach, however.
agree. a bit of a hair piece would have done wonders here to make the actor look the part.
They gave Malkovitch the wrist amulette, but not the hair. Strange.
He looks like Simon Rattle if Simon Rattle were to become bald, old and bearded.
Can hardly wait for a certain American composer to comment about the trombones.
Of course the biopic will be twice as long as it needs to be.
Twice as long as it needs to be? You mean ten seconds?
I wonder if this bit of rehearsal exhortation was recreated in the film…
https://youtu.be/plpqb4jqHkU
The biggest prick i ever played under. A pompous charlatan,insulting and ridiculing top musicians,creating(very cleverly) an absurd cult about himself,followed by zombie like conducting students…And to get the Berlin Phil off rail for almost a minute in the same place on two consecutive evenings( Bruckner 7, end of first mvt, i saw both performances) is quite an achievement. They somehow edited the performance on the Digital Concert Hall.
I got to chat with him after a matinee performance at the Hercules Saal in Munich some 40 years ago.
He was very polite and patient, but I fully understand your point of view. He was a difficult person. And very hard on female trombone players…
What a nut!
His return to Berlin in 1992 after 40 year absence made a sensation, also because it was way overdue.
His very slow tempi were often criticized, but the musical result, especially in the concert hall, was impressive.
Yeah,his sleepwalking tempi were great…We never needed to practice for him, cpuld sight read the parts at half speed in the rehearsals and concerts
He only took no-hoper students, so as to make himself look good. Pretty cruel.
I once heard this story from a colleague who took part in a masterclass with Celibidache: One of the students was a somewhat scattered young man who, in Celibidache’s eyes, could do nothing right. One day, Celibidache asked the young man to conduct the orchestra with virtually no notice. The student, a nervous young man from Colombia, wanted to get his score and baton, but Celibidache insisted he conduct right then and there. For some reason, the rattled young man began conducting the orchestra with the middle fingers of both hands extended (I’m guessing this doesn’t have the same meaning in Colombia that it does in other cultures). After watching the young man bemusedly for perhaps a dozen measures, Celibidache stepped onto the podium, stopped the young man’s conducting, and put his arm around his shoulders. The following exchange took place:
Celibidache: You know, I’ve been thinking about you recently.
Student: (happily) Really, Maestro?
Celibidache: Oh, yes! I’ve been thinking about you and your career.
Student: (excitedly) Really, Maestro?!?
Celibidache: Yes! And I’m now thinking: perhaps you should give up conducting and go into gynecology!
The orchestra roared with laughter, while the hapless young man dissolved in embarrassment.
Celibidache was the biggesr a-hole i ever met.This story illustrates perfectly why….he couldn´t play these games with the LSo—The late,great Maurice Murphy told me a few story how they gave this ridiculously pompous charlatan some little,but (for his inflated ego) painful lessons…
There were two performances? Are you sure? And are you sure you were really there? 😉
Wow, you sound hateful. What did he do to you?
How could he possibly portray Celibidache without a hairpiece? Celi had a magnificent head of hair without even the slightest hint of recession. Ridiculous.
I would appreciate a phonetic representation as to how to pronounce his name.
“chellee-bee-DA-kay”
more like Spanish “que”.