# Magical Performers Of All Time



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Lang Lang
Trifonov 
Horowitz
Gould
Bell


Those are the first that come to mind...my knowledge is a bit limited in this area.


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Schnabel
Horowitz
Hofmann
Casals
Huberman
Heifetz
Kreisler
Caruso
Ferrier
Callas
Furtwangler
De Sabata
Stokowski


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Magical Performers Of All Time


black or white magic?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Zhdanov said:


> black or white magic?


either is cool with me


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Karajan conducting the Beethoven symphonies is pure magic in my opinion.


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## Hermastersvoice (Oct 15, 2018)

Allerius, have you tried Klemperer? He grabs you by the throat in a way that Karajan doesn’t manage; he then manages to persuade you that this music isn’t magic, it’s life itself, it’s inevitable. When you are released from the iron grip after the finish of the 9th symphony, you will not be the same person or think about this music in the same way again. If you have appetite for more (you will have) there’s a Missa Solemnis, a Fidelio and some overtures to complement.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Hermastersvoice said:


> Allerius, have you tried Klemperer? He grabs you by the throat in a way that Karajan doesn't manage; he then manages to persuade you that this music isn't magic, it's life itself, it's inevitable. When you are released from the iron grip after the finish of the 9th symphony, you will not be the same person or think about this music in the same way again. If you have appetite for more (you will have) there's a Missa Solemnis, a Fidelio and some overtures to complement.


Actually no, not yet for the symphonies. I have his Fidelio and love it though (his _prisoners chorus_ is for me the most beautiful and profound that I've heard). Thanks for the tip.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Regarding the symphonies, there is the complete cycle plus recordings of the 3rd, 5th & 7th done in the earlier 50's, which have all the Klemperer trademarks but are not so slow. The 7th is available in a very early stereo version, the other 2 are mono.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Right now I am in love with Maria Joao Pires.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Earl Wild
Francesco Nicolosi
Brigitte Engerer
Andras Schiff
Jorge Bolet
Claudio Arrau
Sergiu Celibitache
Maria Callas
Dimitris Mitropoulos
Joan Sutherland
Steven Mayer
Samson Francois
Jorge Luis Prats 

etc, etc,..


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Klemperer's Beethoven symphonies bring to mind heavy tank divisions rolling across the borders of some small and hapless country. Not entirely a bad thing if you're in the mood!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I want to be stingy with the term "magical." Great musicians have been numerous forever, but there are a few who leave even other musicians incredulous and move them to something like reverence. These people are not always equally in tune with the spirit world; mortal flesh is too frail to permit that, and may be broken by the effort. But when they make contact, which they do more often than not, they change the world's understanding of things.

Of the performers we have on record and can hear, the two greatest practitioners of musical magic I know of are Wilhelm Furtwangler and Maria Callas. They remind us over and over that the human spirit is immense and incomprehensible.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

KenOC said:


> Klemperer's Beethoven symphonies bring to mind heavy tank divisions rolling across the borders of some small and hapless country.


That reminds me of Woody Allen saying that every time he listens to Wagner he gets the urge to invade Poland. I wonder what happens when Klemperer conducts Wagner?


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> That reminds me of Woody Allen saying that every time he listens to Wagner he gets the urge to invade Poland. I wonder what happens when Klemperer conducts Wagner?


There was a great and surprisingly appropriate cover art on the original release of Klemperer doing Wagner overtures, etc.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

^^^ I remember that record jacket well. Could there be a more Wagnerian painting? I've even just recalled the name of the artist, which I haven't thought of since forever: Albrecht Altdorfer.

Those of us who grew up with LPs absorbed vivid impressions of visual art along with the music it accompanied. We also had nice legible jacket notes to read.

Sigh.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Hermastersvoice said:


> Allerius, have you tried Klemperer?* He grabs you by the throat in a way that Karajan doesn't *manage; he then manages to persuade you that this music isn't magic, it's life itself, it's inevitable. When you are released from the iron grip after the finish of the 9th symphony, you will not be the same person or think about this music in the same way again. If you have appetite for more (you will have) there's a Missa Solemnis, a Fidelio and some overtures to complement.


Correction - he grabs YOUR throat in a way Karajan doesn't manage. Certainly I prefer Karajan's way with the Missa Solemnis and Fidelio


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## Hermastersvoice (Oct 15, 2018)

I think it was Gerald Moore who opined that ultimately rhythm was at the core of music; Klemperer certainly has that, the ability to build the climaxes in a rhythmically sustained way so that they become inevitable. Tempo doesn’t even come into it.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Hermastersvoice said:


> I think it was Gerald Moore who opined that ultimately rhythm was at the core of music; Klemperer certainly has that, the ability to build the climaxes in a rhythmically sustained way so that they become inevitable. *Tempo doesn't even come into it*.


Oh so it's a waste of time the composer putting 'Allegro' or 'Adagio'? Of course tempo comes into it. In any case the problem with his Fidelio is the lack of drama in the reading. It has always puzzled me why it is so highly regarded.


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## Hermastersvoice (Oct 15, 2018)

I suppose, DavidA, that tempo is subjective. There is no universally agreed metronome marking for say, allegro. And wouldn’t it be a poorer world if there was? Klemperer’s perception would often seem like dragging if adopted by lesser hands. Somebody mentioned the Fidelio Prisoner Chorus which just seems to put the accents in all the right places. Tempo then becomes irrelevant, I am totally convinced by it. Klemperer’s Beethoven smooth, like Karajan? No. Pleasing like Walter? No. Loving? Yes but more importantly, you know that an argument is made. You get grabbed by the scruff of your neck. Do you like it? Not everybody does.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Limiting the OP's question just to people I have heard live: 

Arrau
Boulez (conducting)
Guarneri Quartet
CSO/Solti
Perleman
Yuri Egorov 
Cleo Laine


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