The JDCMB Poll of the World's Greatest Conductors has ended with a clear vote giving CLAUDIO ABBADO the laurel wreath, streets ahead of everyone else. Readers wrote in with their nominations and the final ten on whom we voted were those who received the most nominations - four or more. 303 votes were placed and the interesting results make me wonder whether I may have a strong clique of readers up in Manchester.
Abbado, whose performances with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra last year drew reviews of the kind you do not read more than once a decade, finished in first place with 27 per cent of the vote. Bernard Haitink was second, lagging considerably, at 15 per cent. A surprise third place went to the young Gianandrea Noseda, principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, with 9 per cent; Charles Mackerras was snapping at his heels fourth with just two fewer votes. Gergiev and Levine tied fifth, Rattle was just behind at sixth, and then (!) Pierre Boulez. My condolences to Muti, who pulled in eighth with 4 per cent, and valiantly bringing up the rear was John Eliot Gardiner, who won just 3 per cent with ten votes.
Noseda was the wild card and the reason that polls like this can be so interesting. Neither of the Southbank supremos, Jurowski and Salonen, receiving two nominations apiece, made the final ten. Such eminences as Eschenbach and Temirkanov were not even mentioned at stage 1; Masur, Sawallisch and Maazel each had only one nomination. Barenboim, with three, fell just short of the final list.
The idea of this contest was that it should be an utterly transparent People's Poll, in which I serve only as initiator and moderator, nominating just four names to start things off and voting once like everyone else (Haitink, since you ask). Thanks to everyone who joined in.
So, bravo Abbado! And we're left wondering whether Noseda is the face of the future...
14 comments:
Not really representative. What happened to Jansons? I think Abaddo didn't do much for the Berlin Phil he basically deconstructed the Karajan sound. I prefer Haitink too!
Noseda is the future. That is all.
This sort of thing is good fun though I have my doubts about "the greatest" in the arts, not least among conductors, who are such individualists. That said, no one has yet come along to replace my beloved Sir Georg...
An interesting exercise, a bit of fun. I very much expected Abbado to come out on top, though I should myself have been happier to see Haitink there. The real problem, for me, is that the whole thing is rather nullified by the absence of Colin Davis from the list to begin with. Others, of course, will be thinking the same about their preferences, but it is usually the case with this sort of list that just a very few absences, or even one, can be very telling in a number of ways.
Interesting to compare....
BBC Maestro had included those who had passed away and got...:
RIP
Herbert von Karajan 219 votes (20.2%)
Leonard Bernstein 201 votes (18.6%)
Sir Georg Solti 116 votes (10.7%)
Arturo Toscanini 76 votes (7%)
Sir Thomas Beecham 57 votes (5.3%) Sir Malcolm Sargent 29 votes (2.7%)
ALIVE
Sir Simon Rattle 229 votes (21.1%)
André Previn 64 votes (5.9%)
Gustavo Dudamel 58 votes (5.4%)
Marin Alsop 34 votes (3.1%)
Now that this one is somewhat settled, can you moderate another interesting poll: "the most overrated conductor"? I would be curious to see the nominations for that...
Actually, that is rather a fine idea, Immanuel...maybe we'll do it. I can think of 20 without even trying.
I work in specialist classical CD shop and occasionally we while away the quieter moments dreaming up our greatest orchestra. Abbado conducting, Heifetz sharing leaders duties with Oistrakh, with a keen Vengerov and melancholy Milstein on second desk. Second Violins led by Grumiaux with Hilary Hahn turning pages joined by Yuri Bashmet and Lawrence Power in the violas. Cellos...interesting....Rostropovich with Casals turning (can you imagine) Du Pre and Fournier on second desk, Isserlis, Yo Yo Ma, Mork, Tortelier, Starker and Gendron making up the rest. Wow, what a sound.
Wind and brass can be fun too. Pahud, Galway, Mayer, Goossens, Brymer, Meyer, Popov, Thunemann, Murphy, Marsalis, Lindberg, Brain, Pyatt, Tuckwell, Watkins....
I just love the thought of Kyung Wha Chung sitting at the back of the seconds...
The most overrated conductor poll? You'd better not organize that, Jessica, or I shall nominate Bernstein and, since you like him very much, you will be miffed!
You can't make up an orchestra of soloists - they have to be team players particularly in the string section. What an absurd idea. Who is going to sit at the back of the seconds?
It's just a bit of fun. I realise they couldn't possibly play together as an orchestra. Just an idle exercise in ranking my favourite players. Bit like putting my 36 versions of the Brahms Violin Concerto in order from time to time....pointless but fun.
I just happened upon this blog, today, so I missed the poll entirely.
Pity Carlos Kleiber didn't make the list. His Beethoven recordings are incomparable.
A professional musician friend of mine considers Bernstein to be a great composer and teacher but a sloppy and overrated conductor. Comparing his recording of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta versus that of one of his teachers, Fritz Reiner, I can see his point. (Reiner definitely kicks ass on Bartok.)
Some other unsung heroes on the podium that didn't get mentioned in this poll: Herbert Blomstedt; Sir Adrian Boult; Evgeny Mavrinsky; Bruno Walter; Klaus Tennstedt; Wilhelm Furtwangler; Serge Koussevitzky; Eduardo Mata; Charles Dutoit; Jeffrey Tate.
Good to see Marin Alsop make the list. And Daniel Barenboim deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Holy Land with youths on both sides of the wall.
Thanks for your comment, Colin. Couldn't agree more about Kleiber et al - the thing was, this was a poll of *living* conductors only. hence absence. I totally agree about Barenboim for Nobel Prize!
Marin Alsop? Are you kidding me? Every single orchestral player I have spoken to, in the U.S. and in Europe, has told me she is a joke. A superficial PR maven who pales in comparison to any regular guest conductor of orchestras world wide. Having played with her many times I think this description is generous in the extreme. My personal faves: Abbado, Muti, Temirkanov, Haitink, Sawallisch, Levine, too many to name!
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