# Which conductor dominates your music library?



## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

I am not asking about your favorite conductor but about which conductor has the biggest presence in your music library?

I suspect the answer may depend more on who was more prolific than who was necessarily better, at least in your usual genres.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Wow. I would have to physically count every disc not only on my shelves but in all my boxed sets. On that question, I'll have to plead ignorance because of laziness.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Eugene Ormandy: as soon as I bought that huge 120 disc Sony box he catapulted to the top. I already had a lot of his stereo recordings so this just cinched it.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Karajan. 

.............


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Counted how? Number of disks? Number of works? Time? It would be different in each case.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Becca said:


> Counted how? Number of disks? Number of works? Time? It would be different in each case.


Anyway you like.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

I mainly buy artist/conductor complete recordings box sets, that said I have all of Karajan's EMI, Decca & DG recordings so for sheer number of discs I believe he wins just because he was such a prolific recording artist.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I can't think of any conductor over-present in my CD collection. When I started out (1986), von Karajan and Haitink were my go-to conductors (different times, zero information to go on, so I went for names I knew).


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Honestly, I have no idea. It might be a toss-up between Bernstein, Boulez, Karajan and perhaps Abbado.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Karajan by a mile, mainly because I bought the box-sets of his recordings, then comes André Previn for similar reasons. My top five comprises the aforementioned plus Bernstein, Boulez and Herreweghe.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

Karajan and Mravinsky. I collect recordings of both.

Counting only discs (I'm not going to count LPs as that's too much manual work!) -

Karajan: 31 days of music.
Mravinsky: 15 days of music.

For Karajan, I have very few duplicate releases of the same recording.

On the contrary, for Mravinsky, these are mostly duplicates! I'm not going to subtract the duplicates as that involves too much work; but if I did, there would be probably less than 5 days of music. Why all these duplicates then? Because one of my pastimes is researching Mravinsky's discography, and given that most of the recording data printed on these releases are _wrong_, the only way to find out if a recording is distinct is to listen to and compare them.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

I guess it would be Harnoncourt or Suzuki. But most of the music I listen to, is music which doesn't make use of a conductor.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Karajan! I have a fair amount of recordings by others (Klemperer, Solti, and to a lesser extent people like Kubelik, Boulez, Böhm, Abbado, Bernstein, ...) but Karajan was just so prolific as a recording artist. I don't have everything, obviously, but he made four Beethoven cycles, three Brahms cycles, a Bruckner cycle, one full Tchaikovsky cycle and I think three or four recordings of 4/5/6, plus the big Wagner operas and plenty of other opera recordings. So with Karajan I am fishing in a large pond.


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## FrankinUsa (Aug 3, 2021)

Without a doubt George Szell


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

In terms of sheer quantity of discs - 

1st place - Thanks to box sets - Claudio Abbado...

2nd place - Again, thanks to box sets - Duplicates of Claudio Abbado discs that I already have...

3rd place - Yet again, thanks to box sets - Christopher Hogwood...

4th place - yep, again thanks to box sets - Duplicates of Christopher Hogwood discs that I already have...

After that... Solti, Gardiner, and Boulez with 125 plus each...


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Yeah, I don't sort my Classical collection by conductor, and iTunes, where the majority of my Classical collection is stored, doesn't really had a convenient way to sort by conductor.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Probably Reiner, but Toscanini, Solti, Bernstein have a strong presence - Abbado, Walter, Stokowski, Mravinsky, Szell a lot, but not quite as much....


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

OT: none. I'm not a fanboy,


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Merl said:


> OT: none. I'm not a fanboy,


Ahem... Which _composer_ dominates your music library?


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

haziz said:


> Anyway you like.


I'm not about to try and figure it out by the various options so must be one of these (in alphabetic order).

John Barbirolli
Vernon Handley
Richard Hickox
Neeme Jarvi
Otto Klemperer
Simon Rattle


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Shaughnessy said:


> Ahem... Which _composer_ dominates your music library?


That one's easy. Peter-Maxwell-Davies. :lol:


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Merl said:


> That one's easy. Peter-Maxwell-Davies. :lol:


I don't belieeeeve it!

Yours sincerely,

V. Meldrew


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Gardiner/Herreweghe/Suzuki/Bohm/C. Davis are most prevalent.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Probably Harnoncourt, then Klemperer, Fricsay or Bernstein. I don't have huge conductor's boxes, so it's probably around 100 discs for the "winner" (I have most of Harnoncourts Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn and a lot of his Bach and Handel) and ~40-50 for the others.

Composer: Beethoven dominates by a clear margin, then Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Schubert, Brahms.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

I don't know but I'm guessing Riccardo Chailly due to the Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler cycles.

Harnoncourt and Herreweghe a close second/third.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

Karajan by a mile, followed by Abbado, Bernstein and Reiner.


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## ansfelden (Jan 11, 2022)

most present on the shelves are

Bernstein (huge box), Reiner (medium huge box) and Abbado (various small boxes)


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## ansfelden (Jan 11, 2022)

D Smith said:


> Karajan by a mile, followed by Abbado, Bernstein and Reiner.


i swear i did not read this before posting. good taste. :tiphat:


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## ansfelden (Jan 11, 2022)

Karajan is omnipresent here too, but scattered all over the place.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

In alphabetical order, I'll just say it's very close between Jochum, Klemperer, Szell and Walter


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Interesting. Reiner is mentioned a number of times, and I can not recall any Reiner CD in my vast collection except Mahler. I just did a search on the text file I have been preparing for my CD's (now doing composers starting with an S), and "Reiner" gave something like 12 hits - and almost all of them turned out to be Breiner actually.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Based largely on box sets, Karajan, Haitink, Walter, Szell, and Klemperer. Only two of these, however, would I actually consider favorite conductors.


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## ansfelden (Jan 11, 2022)

as for Reiner, i have the RCA Chicago SO box, quite a bargain a few years ago.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

ansfelden said:


> as for Reiner, i have the RCA Chicago SO box, quite a bargain a few years ago.


Same here - plus added the Complete Columbia Collection with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra - 14 CD set. The set is only for completists - the CSO recordings surpassed the PSO and what wasn't re-recorded is "workmanlike" rather than inspired.

The Reiner CSO box contains 63 discs and secondary market prices are hovering around the 1100 USD range... which is about 950 USD more than I paid in 2014.

It's a great set - one of my favorites - but it's not 1100 USD great.


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## EvaBaron (Jan 3, 2022)

I listen to everything on Spotify and I haven’t listened to much yet because for example, almost every Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms symphony i have a different conductor for so I really can’t say. I will say, I wish furtwangler recordings had better audio quality because for example his Brahms 4 is amazing and his flexibility of tempi and understanding of the music is perfect for this symphony.


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## ansfelden (Jan 11, 2022)

forgot to mention Boulez - also dominating in terms of quantity in my collection.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Though I do have one of the big 101 CD box sets from Warner Classics - 0190295955199 - 
titled _Karajan Official Remastered Edition_ (released in 2016)

View attachment 164967


as well as a couple dozen Karajan albums on LP, CD, and included in various box sets (such as the vinyl record set titled _Beethoven Bicentennial Collection_, released in 1970 in a series of 17 box sets, each with, I believe, 5 records, in which Karajan is represented in five of the boxes with the complete symphonies, the overtures, the _Missa Solemnis_, and the Violin Concerto, amongst other works) .... Yet, Karajan is not a favorite conductor by any means, and I never set out to "collect" Karajan recordings. In fact, I have generally avoided them. But over half a century of record/CD hoarding, I've managed to acquire quite a few Karajan discs. I was somewhat surprised to look at my Discogs listing (which includes most of my holdings, but not all, especially in the classical vinyl disc categories, where I have several (at least) Karajan records not yet catalogued in my Discogs database.). The name "Karajan" provided for exactly 50 "hits" at the database, including one which is that big Warner box set and five which are included in the Beethoven set. I see several other box sets which will include Karajan as well as individual discs featuring works by Mozart, Strauss, Bruckner, Mahler, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Verdi ... and at least two different Beethoven symphony sets. Easily well over 200 discs full of Karajan recordings.

What about the conductors I _have_ actually sought out in the "collection" sense? I think off hand of Furtwängler, Bernstein, Mravinsky and Celibidache.

Furtwängler gives me only 21 hits on my Discogs database, but that includes several multi-disc sets including one large box, the 107 CD box set from Membran/Documents - 233110,

View attachment 164969


and multi-disc collections of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner symphonies. I suspect that if I eliminate the several discs of works _composed_ by the conductor but not directed by him on the recordings, I will come close to 200 Furtwängler discs.

Bernstein holds prominent space on my disc shelves, and off hand I am thinking he may well be the most represented conductor in my collection. I know there will be duplicates of his recordings, since I have several box sets of Bernstein conducting, so -- how to count these?

Leonard Bernstein provides for 94 hits on my Discogs database. Several of these will be attributed to Bernstein the composer, where he is _not_ the conductor. But the conducting range is still strong in my listings. It includes the two large box sets from Deutsche Grammophon titled _The Leonard Bernstein Collection_, Volume One of 64 discs and Volume Two of 59 discs, and the three large box sets from Sony Classical, the first titled _The Symphony Edition_ of 60 discs, the second titled _Concertos & Orchestral Works_ with 80 discs, and the final one _The Vocal Works_ of 56 discs. That's quite a bit of Bernstein.

















And a lot of what is in those box sets will overlap with recordings I had previously had by LB, which includes complete sets of the Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler symphonies. One interesting 7 CD box set which may not overlap is titled _Leonard Bernstein in Paris_, issued by Warner Classics, and featuring "Recordings & Concerts with Orchestre National de France".

Another Bernstein set which likely doesn't overlap those initial big box sets is titled _The Early Years - The 1953 American Decca Records_, released by Andromeda - ANDRCD 5115. It contains 3 CDs. Another set, of 11 CDs, is _Historical Recordings 1941 - 1961_ on the West Hill Radio Archives label - WHRA-6048. Quite a few other collections and Bernstein conducted discs. I would estimate Bernstein is the most recorded conducting representative in my collection.

I do have a lot of Celibidache, especially because of the EMI Classics box set compilations which feature so many of his extant recordings, of which I believe I have them all. Apparently Celibidache wasn't a big fan of recording, but my Discogs database gave me 22 hits for the name Celibidache. This includes the 11 disc box titled _Celibidache - Münchner Philharmoniker_, the 11 disc _Sacred Music & Opera_ featuring the Münchner Philharmoniker, the 12 CD Bruckner box, the 11 CD _French & Russian Music_ box, also featuring Münchner Philharmoniker, and the 14 CD _Symphonies_ box with works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Schumann. Quite a bit of Celibidache, a quirky conductor whose musical vision I treasure. I may not always agree with his approach, but he does have a way of getting me to re-hear every piece he touches, and the re-hearing is always informative and thoughtful. In a good way, in other words.









I mentioned Mravinsky above. Mravinsky gave me 20 hits on my Discogs database, and that includes a couple of sets of the final three Tchaikovsky symphonies, the music that introduced me to this Russian conductor. I cherish those Tchaikovsky discs. But I see, too, I have both sets of the _Mravinsky Edition_, Volumes 1-10 and Volumes 11-20, twenty discs total. Too, there is 10 CD collection titled _Historic Russian Archives: Evgeny Mravinsky Edition_ from Brilliant Classics - 8593. And a lot of individual discs with rarities on the Russian Disc, Monopole, and Olympia labels.

I see on my shelves I also have the 43 discs (including multiple disc sets) of the Supraphon label's Karel Ancerl Gold Edition. Quite a big of glorious music making on this 50+ CD collection.

I have a lot of Pierre Boulez, as well. The Discogs database gives me 43 hits for Boulez, including the stunning 67 CD compilation box set _The Complete Columbia Album Collection_ on Sony Classical - 88843013332, the 10 CD box set titled _Le Domaine Musical - 1956...1967_ featuring conductor Boulez on the label Accord/Universal Music France - 4811510, and the 44 CD Limited Edition compilation _Boulez 90_on Deutsche Grammophon - 479261. My 14 disc box set _Pierre Boulez Conducts Mahler_ on Deutsche Grammophon - 477 9528 - remains a treasure in my collection, too. So, a lot of Boulez.

One of the folders I set up for my Discogs database is titled "Conductors Box Sets". Many of the boxes cited above are in that folder for quick access. But I also see several other interesting sets with multi-disc conductors: 20 CDs from Alexander Gauk on _Historical Russian Archives • Alexander Gauk Edition_ from Brilliant Classics - 8866; 20 discs with the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra led by Rico Saccani, a series of live recordings wonderfully done; all 17 discs of the Supraphon - SU 3837-2 - series: _Václav Talich Special Edition_, and large multi-disc box sets featuring favorites including William Steinberg, Eugene Ormandy, Bernard Haitink, Jean Martinon, Leopold Stokowski ... each of which is also represented on individual discs many times over in my collection.

The Discogs database is quite helpful for me in keeping track of what is going on in my ever expanding disc collection, which, I see from the database, is well represented by favorite (and, in the case of Karajan at least, _un_favorite) conductors.

To sum up, I believe Bernstein gets the nod for "conductor who most dominates" in my music collection. (Those big compilations from DGG and SONY sure help the cause.) And I don't regret that in the least.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

I have many conductors. Boxes of Karajan, Kubelik, and a whole host of others.of course when it comes to early music there are specialists


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I don't collect by conductor so none are particularly predominant. If I was to root through my collection I would probably expect to see usual suspects such as Bernstein, Solti, von Karajan and Colin Davis represented more than most, I suppose.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Not sure about my personal collection, but as for my local classical music station, I've learned a reliable rule of thumb: It's always Neeme Järvi.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

re: "Which conductor dominates your music library?"

I have more CDs by Leonard Bernstein than any other conductor...by far! To my ears, the earlier Columbia recordings are exemplar practically across the repertoire. Bernstein's DG recordings are more of a mixed bag with a few things that very good such as the Mozart and Sibelius recordings, as well as, the controversial DG recording of Tchaikovsky's 6th where Bernstein really slows down but savors every morsel of musical goodness. Karajan comes in second, followed by the likes of Toscanini, Ormandy, Szell, Reiner, Stokowski, Mitropoulos, Ozawa, and Boulez. 

Glenn Gould dominates my piano collection; Isaac Stern my violin collection; for cello it might be a tie between Mstislav Rostropovich and Yo-Yo Ma.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Probably Karajan, Klemperer, and Furtwangler. It's funny, for Baroque music I seem to have a much larger variety of performers whereas I tend to return to the old warhorses more for later music.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Art Rock said:


> Interesting. Reiner is mentioned a number of times, and I can not recall any Reiner CD in my vast collection except Mahler. I just did a search on the text file I have been preparing for my CD's (now doing composers starting with an S), and "Reiner" gave something like 12 hits - and almost all of them turned out to be Breiner actually.


Who's Breiner? 
I have a handful of Reiner discs, the Bartok Concerto/Music for, accompaniments for Heifetz, the EMI Great conductors twofer, one or two more. The repertoire he is famous for overlaps little with my main interests.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Coach G said:


> re: "Which conductor dominates your music library?"
> 
> I have more CDs by Leonard Bernstein than any other conductor...by far! To my ears, the earlier Columbia recordings are exemplar practically across the repertoire. Bernstein's DG recordings are more of a mixed bag with a few things that very good such as the Mozart and Sibelius recordings, as well as, the controversial DG recording of Tchaikovsky's 6th where Bernstein really slows down but savors every morsel of musical goodness. Karajan comes in second, followed by the likes of Toscanini, Ormandy, Szell, Reiner, Stokowski, Mitropoulos, Ozawa, and Boulez.
> 
> *Glenn Gould dominates my piano collection; Isaac Stern my violin collection; for cello it might be a tie between Mstislav Rostropovich and Yo-Yo Ma*.


*Alfred Brendel dominates my piano collection; Joseph Szigeti my violin collection; for cello it's Enrico Bronzi.*


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

To be serious (well semi-serious) for a moment I'm guessing that the most prevalent conductors in my collection are those that made the most recordings so the usual suspects (Karajan, Bernstein, etc). Tbh, I can't be bothered looking thru everything I have and tallying it all up. It doesn't really mater to me. I have so much stuff it's hard to say. I'd say I have at least one recording by every renowned conductor. I maintain that every professional conductor has at least one fine recording / concert in them. I find the concept of following and idolising one particular conductor personally weird but if that's what floats yer boat, knock yerself out!

Edit: just scanning thru my CDs only, just now, I have a surprising number of Szell, Abbado, Dohnanyi, Jochum and Blomstedt but that was just from a quick scan of what was immediately noticeable. Looking at the most represented orchestras I did notice a lot of BPO discs (no surprise there) but just as many LSO recordings (various conductors)! String quartet-wise I have a lot of Quartetto Italiano discs. The high numbers of these artists does not mean they are my favourites, it's mainly because they were the most prolific, or were around longer.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

wkasimer said:


> Based largely on box sets, Karajan, Haitink, Walter, Szell, and Klemperer. Only two of these, however, would I actually consider favorite conductors.


Can I ask who those two favorite conductors are?

Thanks.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Wow! This is a difficult one. I presume that Celibitache, Günter Wand, Karajan, Bernstein and Tulio Serafin (because of the numerous operas) must be toping my collection. Also I have more than 100 recordings with Rozhdestvensky. Karl Schuricht, the great Scherchen, the Meister Abendroth and my beloved Asahina are also very strong.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

It's a 'tie' with my classical music collection, with both Leif Segerstam and Arturo Tamayo conducting 70 compositions apiece.
My 3rd prolific conductor - Pierre Boulez - clocks in at around 50 compositions.

[my soundtrack collection has about 150 Jerry Goldsmith albums and since he conducted his scores most of the time I'd say I have well over 100 recordings conducted by Goldsmith]


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Svetlanov
Fedoseyev
Kondrashin
Gergiev
Karajan
Solti
Bernstein
Jarvi
Bonynge
Thomson
Mackerras
Barenboim
Muti


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

I'm not going to try to count it up, but conductors whose recordings I have a lot of are obviously Gardiner (I have his complete Bach church cantatas box), Jansons (the BR Klassik box), Skrowaczewski (the 90th b-day box). Among smaller boxes and assorted individual recordings, I have a lot of Karajan, Abbado, Boulez, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, with a fair amount of Bernstein, Walter, and Szell, and more than a little Iván Fischer, Gergiev, Haitink, Mackerras, Sinopoli, Blomstedt, Suzuki, Klemperer, Gielen, Chailly, Muti. I have everything Kleiber recorded and officially released, but that's comparatively a small number.

I also have the Reiner RCA complete downloaded, but honestly I hardly listen to it; I'm just not a Reiner fan.


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## SigmaOctantis (10 mo ago)

That would Neville Marriner for me. He's not really my favorite (though he's up there), but I find him to be very reliable. If it has his name stamped on it, it's very likely I'll enjoy it. He hasn't really let me down.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Back in the day when I was actively buying vinyl and later CDs, I found my collection dominated by Ormandy-conducted works. Some Bernstein, some Ansermet, the rest scattered among many conductors--Angel Records had a small army of relatively obscure (to an American) conductors from central Europe, and Mercury a group of lesser-known conductors of American Midwest orchestras. Many CM recordings were of the Big City bands--New York, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland under Szell, and the three or four London orchestras, and Berlin and Vienna. I was imprinted early by the conducting of Ormandy, Bernstein, and Ansermet, and I found performances of works I knew well by some other conductors to be somewhat, disappointingly, different from my ideals. Later, I began to realize that such early imprinting was ubiquitous among most listeners who were not musical professionals, nor those wishing to appear so. Nowadays I am quite content with any decent performance by any decent orchestra and conductor that is well recorded. Thus I have usually one recording of any given work, not 50, and enjoy it every time I hear it. For me, much of the pleasure of CM (or any music worth hearing) is to hear it again, many times: as an old and dear friend. Given an appreciated piece of music, a decent orchestra (there are dozens and dozens of them) and excellent recording, the role of the conductor for me is minimal, though it is great to sense that the orchestra members really enjoy working with a favored conductor.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

It's only 1600 CDs, and of course not all have a conductor.
Of those that do, I guess Celibidache is leading, with about 40-odd CDs plus that 13DVD box.
Then somewhere back in the 30s are I think Karajan & Jarvi.
Certainly the box sets help, so Martinon, Maag, Keilberth, etc are more highly represented than they would have been 10 years ago.
And in the LP days it was Karajan, without question.
There are a lot of conductors I have 20-something of, that's for sure.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

Probably Davis...then Haitink.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

unlike most here it seems, I don't own thousands of LP's and CD and get ever more careful about what I buy (for space and management reasons rather than purely financial) -- usually after checking out the work on a streaming service.

Having said that, one conductor at least is rather over-represented simply by virtue of having conducted all 15 Shostakovich symphonies in a cheap box -- I refer to Barshai. There's probably a bit more Pesek than strictly merited as well with a cheap box again being the reason. 

The winner on merit and volume must be Kurt Sanderling. I have the complete Beethoven, Brahms and Sibelius sets as well as some Shostakovich, Bruckner, Mahler, etc. He wasn't especially prolific in the recording studio compared to some but there is very little which isn't first rate. I'll never forgive him for not doing a "Leningrad" as there's still no entirely satisfactory version.

Svetlanov was my first favourite conductor and still possibly the best with Russian music -so I picked up the Tchaikovsky box and a number of other things including an absolutely incredible Rachmaninov 1 in my early years


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

haziz said:


> Can I ask who those two favorite conductors are?
> 
> Thanks.


Walter and Klemperer.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

pianozach said:


> *Alfred Brendel dominates my piano collection; Joseph Szigeti my violin collection; for cello it's Enrico Bronzi.*


I'm a bit surprised by Bronzi - what has he recorded other than the Boccherini concertos?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Klempy...........................


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Just surveying my MusicBee interface at work:

Herbert von Karajan by a mile (255 albums, most of which are from the decade box sets)
Fritz Reiner (16 albums from Living Stereo collection)
Charles Munch (10 albums from Living Stereo collection)
Rudolf Kempe (9 albums, from Richard Strauss Warner Classics collection)
Sir Colin Davis (7 Albums, 4 of which are cycles)
Theodore Kuchar (6 albums, 2 of which are cycles)
Leif Segerstam (6 albums, all of which are the Naxos Sibelius collection)
Adam Fischer (3 Albums, but all are large cycles of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven)
Trevor Pinnock (3 albums, but all are large cycles of Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart)
Sir Simon Rattle (4 albums, 3 of which are cycles)
Sir John Eliot Gardiner (4 albums, 2 of which are cycles)
Riccardo Chailly (4 albums, 2 of which are cycles)
Leonard Bernstein (4 albums, 2 of which are cycles)
Michael Sanderling (2 albums, which are Shosty and Beethoven cycles)
Jos van Immerseel (2 albums, which are both cycles)
Seiji Ozawa (2 albums, one of which is a Prokofiev cycle)
Carlos Kleiber (3 albums, all single works)

There are lots and lots of conductors with one or two albums after that, but they aren't cycles and so don't occupy as much space/time.

Honorable (off topic) mention goes to Emerson String Quartet with 33 albums.


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

Tier 1:

Leonard Bernstein: 47 albums/cycles, 4.5 days of music
Herbert von Karajan: 41 albums/cycles, 3.9 days of music
Georg Solti: 32 albums/cycles, 3.7 days of music
Maasaki Suzuki: 6 albums/cycles, 3.1 days of music (solely from Bach and mostly due to having his complete sacred cantatas :lol

Tier 2:

Antal Doráti: 21 albums/cycles, 2.9 days of music
Karl Böhm: 19 albums/cycles, 2.7 days of music
Wilhelm Furtwängler: 18 albums/cycles, 2.7 days of music
Eugene Ormandy: 20 albums/cycles, 2.4 days of music
Charles Mackerras: 28 albums/cycles, 2 days of music
Claudio Abbado: 25 albums/cycles, 2 days of music
Colin Davis: 21 albums/cycles, 2 days of music
John Eliot Gardiner: 20 albums/cycles, 2 days of music
Fritz Reiner: 22 albums, 2 days of music


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## Holden4th (Jul 14, 2017)

As a pianophile, orchestral recordings take second place but I do have a decent number of them in my 2000+ collection. Looking at my now digitised collection it's apparent that I have collected conductors by composer with a couple of notable exceptions. As a Beethoven fan I have complete recordings by Toscanini, Furtwangler, Walter (mono and stereo) Reiner, Monteux, Cluytens, Leibowitz, Krips. 

However, a few conductors made me look further than something composer based. Those who made me look further were Leibowitz, Walter, Toscanini, Furtwangler and especially Reiner and Fricsay and I have a good number of their recordings but none really dominate. I have none of the box sets of conductors that have been produced in the last decade or so. (Nearly did it for the latest Fricsay set from DGG) To me, a great performance is more important than a conductors complete oeuvre. I have heaps of those.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Just surveying my MusicBee interface at work:
> 
> Herbert von Karajan by a mile (255 albums, most of which are from the decade box sets)
> Fritz Reiner (16 albums from Living Stereo collection)
> ...


I just bought 3 more Theodore Kuchar albums, a Lyatoshynsky symphony cycle.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

MatthewWeflen said:


> I just bought 3 more Theodore Kuchar albums, a Lyatoshynsky symphony cycle.


I have two Kuchar complete sets -- Nielsen and Prokofiev. The latter is virtually definitive in my view. A fine conductor indeed.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

As someone who does not make money (student) I haven't even had my collection yet.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

dko22 said:


> I have two Kuchar complete sets -- Nielsen and Prokofiev. The latter is virtually definitive in my view. A fine conductor indeed.


Is that Prokofiev cycle cobbled together from the individual Naxos releases? Or is there a collection under one cover?

And yes, my other two Kuchar-conducted "cycles" are Nielsen (which is terrific) and Shosty Jazz and Ballet Suites. Really, the Smetana collection I have by Kuchar/Janacek Phil. constitutes another "cycle" at 3h45m.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Is that Prokofiev cycle cobbled together from the individual Naxos releases? Or is there a collection under one cover?
> 
> And yes, my other two Kuchar-conducted "cycles" are Nielsen (which is terrific) and Shosty Jazz and Ballet Suites. Really, the Smetana collection I have by Kuchar/Janacek Phil. constitutes another "cycle" at 3h45m.


Yes, the Profoviev was cobbled together from the individual releases. No idea if a box was ever produced.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

KevinW said:


> As someone who does not make money (student) I haven't even had my collection yet.


With the dominance of streaming services at this time, you maybe part of the the "post-collection" generation.

I still occasionally buy albums, and even then mostly as downloads, but often wonder why I bother since those same albums are usually available for streaming and even offline download on the three hi-res streaming services I subscribe to.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Is that Prokofiev cycle cobbled together from the individual Naxos releases? Or is there a collection under one cover?
> 
> And yes, my other two Kuchar-conducted "cycles" are Nielsen (which is terrific) and Shosty Jazz and Ballet Suites. Really, the Smetana collection I have by Kuchar/Janacek Phil. constitutes another "cycle" at 3h45m.


A good deal of his Naxos output is available in a single Brilliant Classics budget Kuchar "box" that is available for download from PrestoMusic for a ridiculously low price. The Dvorak, Shosty and Nielsen recordings are superb.

Edit: Clarified that it does not include the entirety of his Naxos recordings. A bargain nonetheless.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

haziz said:


> Almost his entire Naxos output is available in a single Brilliant Classics budget Kuchar "box" that is available for download from PrestoMusic for a ridiculously low price. The Dvorak, Shosty and Nielsen recordings are superb.


I don't think this Brilliant box collects any of the Kuchar Naxos stuff. It's still a great deal of course (especially at $8.50 for FLAC!), I just happen to have already purchased each set individually ().


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

MatthewWeflen said:


> I don't think this Brilliant box collects any of the Kuchar Naxos stuff. It's still a great deal of course (especially at $8.50 for FLAC!), I just happen to have already purchased each set individually ().


I guess I never fully paid attention to the entirety of his oeuvre, but regardless that "box" is a bargain, at least in download form. The recordings are also superb.


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## Bkeske (Feb 27, 2019)

Haven’t made an exact count, but I would be surprised if it wasn’t Szell. I’m pretty sure it is.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Bernstein and Mackerras are my two most represented.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I went through my library and was surprised at some of the results:

Eugene Corporon (Director of bands at North Texas State University): 37 recordings
Frederick Fennell: 30 recordings
Vernon Hadley: 30 recordings
Richard Hickox: 36 recordings
Neeme Jarvi: 50 recordings
Gerard Schwartz: 46 recordings
Leonard Slatkin: 43 recordings


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## FrankinUsa (Aug 3, 2021)

I've never heard of this Kuchar guy. On top of that,there seems to be some 'personal " problems.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

FrankinUsa said:


> I've never heard of this Kuchar guy. On top of that,there seems to be some 'personal " problems.


I haven't been able to find anything on Google. Can you point me to something?


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I have seven recordings of Kuchar.

Link to Wike article about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Kuchar


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## John Zito (Sep 11, 2021)

I don't have physical product anymore. In my small library of iTunes purchases, Solti takes the cake with three: Mahler 8, Tchaikovsky 5, Verdi Requiem in Vienna.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

John Zito said:


> I don't have physical product anymore. In my small library of iTunes purchases, Solti takes the cake with three: Mahler 8, Tchaikovsky 5, Verdi Requiem in Vienna.


You're a streamer now?


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## methuselah (10 mo ago)

Von Karajan and Bernstein. I might enjoy more classical if it were conducted by one of these two fellas.


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## John Zito (Sep 11, 2021)

Neo Romanza said:


> You're a streamer now?


Since 2012. And I never had many CDs to begin with.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

arpeggio said:


> I have seven recordings of Kuchar.
> 
> Link to Wike article about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Kuchar


I meant with respect to whatever allegations are being made against him. I can't find a thing. Are there any?


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

methuselah said:


> Von Karajan and Bernstein. I might enjoy more classical if it were conducted by one of these two fellas.


Are you saying that there aren't _enough _recordings by these two? I love me some Karajan, but under-recorded he is not.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I do not follow the cult of the conductor. To me, the conducting only becomes an issue when the tempo is either right or wrong (in my opinion) or whether the orchestra likes him a lot so he extracts their best efforts and are not grumpy and sullen. An example of a conductor messing up a work is Ashkenazy conducting Sibelius' _En Saga_ that has the sledge mired in molasses as it attempts to glide through the snowy forest. For me, what carries a recording is a function of the orchestra's skill and coherence and the quality of the recording. The conductor's function is to be a source of positive vibes for his orchestra and not mess up the tempo.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

^ I'm not in favour of the cult of the conductor either, but I think they contribute more than just " not messing up the tempo".

Phrasing, pace, as opposed to tempo, bringing some instruments forward, quietening some down...etc


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Forster said:


> ^ I'm not in favour of the cult of the conductor either, but I think they contribute more than just " not messing up the tempo".
> 
> Phrasing, pace, as opposed to tempo, bringing some instruments forward, quietening some down...etc


i can go for that, but the score should be the prime source for who is forward and who back, and also the sound engineer can contribute. But I think of an orchestra like Orpheus, or of any number of pianists "conducting" from the bench......


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Please do not describe and discuss illegal activities on this site. Posts have been adjusted or deleted.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Forster said:


> ^ I'm not in favour of the cult of the conductor either, but I think they contribute more than just " not messing up the tempo".
> Phrasing, pace, as opposed to tempo, bringing some instruments forward, quietening some down...etc


Borge explains


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

V Petrenko and Marriner but soloists are involved such as J Bell, S Isserlis and S Hough.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Forster said:


> ^ I'm not in favour of the cult of the conductor either, but I think they contribute more than just " not messing up the tempo".
> 
> Phrasing, pace, as opposed to tempo, bringing some instruments forward, quietening some down...etc


Based on my reading, I view a conductor as similar to the director of a movie. They (frequently) hire performers and direct them in what to emphasize. They choose the scripts (scores) to produce. They direct the rehearsals and pinpoint areas to improve (according to their taste). They direct the live show. If there is a recording, they have final say in what gets put on tape, what needs to be redone. On all matters of taste, they are the ultimate arbiter.

So I would not say it means I subscribe to the "cult of the conductor" if I recognize the central contribution the conductor makes to the final result I hear, just as the director does to a movie.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

Karajan, Bernstein, Klemperer, Furtwängler, Haitink, Berglund, Vänskä

I cannot deny it although I have never really thought about it.


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## PathfinderCS (11 mo ago)

As it stands right now I think I have a decent mix of conductors, but given time I can't help but think that Esa-Pekka Salonen and Michael Tilson Thomas will be the primary conductors of choice.


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## Skakner (Oct 8, 2020)

I don't have stats of my (physical and digital) library but the names that come immediately in mind are...

Bernstein
Karajan
Celibidache
Klemperer
Wand
Gardiner
Chailly
Gielen
Barenboim
Solti
Ozawa


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

No conductor dominates my collection, though Carlos Kleiber might have if his repertoire had been wider. There are some conductors I tend to avoid (Rattle and Thielemann come to mind straight away) but even then I'm prepared to make exceptions in appropriate cases - for example I do like Brendel and Rattle's set of the Beethoven concertos.


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Based on number of CDs (my medium of choice) it would probably be Karl Richter, actually.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Animal the Drummer said:


> No conductor dominates my collection, though Carlos Kleiber might have if his repertoire had been wider ........


It is actually hard to build a music collection in which Carlos Kleiber is the dominant conductor, unless your collection is restricted to 20 recordings or so! The man was very selective (and fussy) about both his live and his even rarer studio recordings. It is even more restrictive for me since I don't listen to opera.

I do like his Beethoven 5 & 7 (probably my favorite recording of both symphonies) as well as his Brahms 4th. I prefer several other conductors in Borodin's 2nd symphony, and don't really care that much about the rest of his output. It is a pity, I do think he was a fine conductor, and I do wish he was a bit more prolific.


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## Skakner (Oct 8, 2020)

Skakner said:


> I don't have stats of my (physical and digital) library but the names that come immediately in mind are...
> 
> Bernstein
> Karajan
> ...


Oops!
I forgot Abbado, Harnoncourt, Haitink and Sinopoli.


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## Agamenon (Apr 22, 2019)

Karajan by number of " everything".

Then, my fave conductors:
Giulini
Klemperer
Furtwängler
Bernstein


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Just surveying my MusicBee interface at work:
> 
> Herbert von Karajan by a mile (255 albums, most of which are from the decade box sets)
> Fritz Reiner (16 albums from Living Stereo collection)
> ...


Updates are in bold above.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Chilham said:


> I don't know but I'm guessing Riccardo Chailly due to the Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler cycles.
> 
> Harnoncourt and Herreweghe a close second/third.


Boy did I get that wrong!

Based on the number of movements conducted - the only way I can tell easily and probably a reasonable factor to use although I accept it likely favours those who conduct more opera than others - it's Harnoncourt by a country mile. Chailly doesn't even come close!

Harnoncourt - 477
Herreweghe - 399
Christophers - 298

Solti, Jacobs, Rattle, Gardiner, Chailly, Neeme Järvi and Savall fill out the top 10. Bernstein, Pinnock, Antonini, Gergiev, Rousset, Boulez, Abbado, Karajan, Mackerras, and a Pappano/Hogwood tie follow in that order.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Boulez
Bernstein
Barenboim
Klemperer
Solti


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Some updates are reordering based on length:

Herbert von Karajan by a mile (255 albums, most of which are from the decade box sets)
Fritz Reiner (16 albums from Living Stereo collection)
John Williams (12 albums, all movie scores)
Charles Munch (10 albums from Living Stereo collection)
Adam Fischer (3 Albums, but all are large cycles of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven)
Trevor Pinnock (3 albums, but all are large cycles of Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart)
Theodore Kuchar (9 albums, 2 of which are cycles)
Sir Colin Davis (7 Albums, 4 of which are cycles)
Rudolf Kempe (9 albums, from Richard Strauss Warner Classics collection)
Bernard Haitink (8 Albums, 7 of which are his Vaughan Williams cycle)
Leif Segerstam (6 albums, all of which are the Naxos Sibelius collection)
Sir Simon Rattle (4 albums, 3 of which are cycles)
Sir John Eliot Gardiner (4 albums, 2 of which are cycles)
Riccardo Chailly (4 albums, 2 of which are cycles)
Leonard Bernstein (4 albums, 2 of which are cycles)
Michael Sanderling (2 albums, which are Shosty and Beethoven cycles)
Jos van Immerseel (2 albums, which are both cycles)
Seiji Ozawa (2 albums, one of which is a Prokofiev cycle)
Carlos Kleiber (3 albums, all single works)

There are lots and lots of conductors with one or two albums after that, but they aren't cycles and so don't occupy as much space/time.

Honorable (off topic) mention goes to Emerson String Quartet with 33 albums.[/QUOTE]


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I did a count (subject to error as I was literally going along my shelves counting discs) for Harnoncourt and it's about 157 discs although fewer sets as many are 2-3 discs operas or 6 disc Bach cantata boxes (I counted these half because it's shared with Leonhardt but I didn't look precisely who conducted on the discs I have, I don't have the complete set). Because of the many oratorios and some operas and repertoire stretching from Monteverdi to Bartok I am pretty sure Harnoncourt is comfortably in the lead.
The bulk of my collection was acquired before the cheap big boxes, I bought almost all that stuff as singles or smallish boxes (such as 5-10 discs work cycles) that's why hardly any composer (or pianists) dominates in the way it would be easily possible with 50-120 disc boxes.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Karajan - by light years!

Then...

Boulez, Sinopoli, Boult, Handley, Britten & Bernstein.

And later, off the top of my head....

Dohnyani, Hickox, Jochum, Bohm, Wand Klemperer & Haitink.

Must have overlooked some conductors of whom I have many CDs.

Many favourite conductors, who for one reason or another, don't have a huge numerical presence in my collection, but have a significant presence in terms of key works, e.g. Gergiev, Celibidache, Knappertsbusch, Solti, Salonen, Furtwangler et al


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## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

I'd have to say it's pretty even, but Walter, Belohlavek and Mackerras are probably the ones I have the most of. That said I just ordered the reissued Szell/Cleveland box.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Bernstein with about 70 discs is probably #2.


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## Anooj (Dec 5, 2021)

Possibly Trevor Pinnock. All the stuff by him I have is baroque music, but since he’s turned out to be a reliable go-to guy in that repertoire, its still probably the most I have of any one conductor. With later eras, there’s more of a mix of different conductors among whom no-one is similarly dominant.

If you want to stretch the definition to include film composers, there’s quite a few better candidates there, as these are often conducted by the composer. Either Miklos Rozsa or John Williams would be the most numerous in this case, followed by Jerry Goldsmith, then at least a few others.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

wkasimer said:


> I'm a bit surprised by Bronzi - what has he recorded other than the Boccherini concertos?


He dominates because that Boccherini is a 3 CD set. No other cellist is on more than one CD in my collection.

He's also on a Claudio Abbado collection of Brandenburg Concertos.

Seems he specializes in baroque.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Back to the original question of the OP: The conductor dominating my music library (so far) is possibly either Karajan/Klemperer or someone like that. However, more subjectively speaking, as my favorite genre is violin concerto and my favorite violinist is Arthur Grumiaux who cooperates a lot with Sir Colin Davis, the conductor dominating my favorite part of music library is therefore Sir Colin. I think this will change as I touch on more genres, which I am already doing.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Now I am mocked by listening to CDs--they literally asked how old I am when I said I want to borrow a CD reader... And I said 16...


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

KevinW said:


> Back to the original question of the OP: The conductor dominating my music library (so far) is possibly either Karajan/Klemperer or someone like that. However, more subjectively speaking, as my favorite genre is violin concerto and my favorite violinist is Arthur Grumiaux who cooperates a lot with Sir Colin Davis, the conductor dominating my favorite part of music library is therefore Sir Colin. I think this will change as I touch on more genres, which I am already doing.


Grumiaux's my favourite violinist too and I have his versions of the Brahms and Beethoven concertos conducted by Davis, which are fine. However, IMHO he's done better recordings of both, the Brahms conducted by van Beinum and the Beethoven conducted by Galliera. Try them if you haven't already.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Anyone have a lot of Schwarz? Guy shows up on Naxos stuff a lot.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

fbjim said:


> Anyone have a lot of Schwarz? Guy shows up on Naxos stuff a lot.


I do. Especially with (pre-Naxos) Delos discs. Gerard Schwarz has been as prolific as Leonard Slatkin within my collection.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

dominates by sheer force and charisma


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

fbjim said:


> Anyone have a lot of Schwarz? Guy shows up on Naxos stuff a lot.


I've got quite a few of the Schwarz/Seattle recordings....

Lots of Abbado, too


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

hammeredklavier said:


> dominates by sheer force and charisma


Puts me in mind of Sir Adrian Boult (given a straight jacket and longer stick).


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

HenryPenfold said:


> Puts me in mind of Sir Adrian Boult (given a straight jacket and longer stick).


Richard Strauss, Reiner, Monteux - very limited movement, small precise beat....little or no "delayed beat"


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

I do love the other two recordings by Grumiaux as well. The two you mentioned are better in terms of Grumiaux's personal performance, since his flow of music gets better in those two recordings, possibly thanks to better right hand techniques. However, I do like the orchestra performance in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra+Sir Colin Davis recordings. They sound very "satisfying" to me and are almost flawless like Grumiaux's playing style. I especially like the RCO's wind and brass sections, as they sound exceptionally better than other orchestras at that time. For example, the oboe and horn in this recording were so lovely.

Grumiaux playing Beethoven VC with RCO and Davis. Listen to 7:53-8:02. You can compare to many other recordings of the same composition, and you will see how incredible the oboe and the horn is.


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