# Slow tempo rendition



## GoingForBaroque (Sep 26, 2010)

Hey guys, I am the only one, but does it bother anyone else, when a conductor plays a piece, that you normally love, too fast? To me, it sounds like they are trying to rush through and get it over with, not letting one savor the composition. It takes all the feeling all the life out of the piece.

My question. Can anyone tell me of a conductor and/or orchestra that usually plays the piece at a moderately slower tempo? I'm not talking about the form, e.g. an adagio or largo. I am talking about the overall tempo of the entire piece, especially the allegros being played slower than other renditions of the same piece.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I don't like when conductors take things too quickly either. It's quite frankly annoying to me and often sounds shallow. Leonard Bernstein in his DG recordings will take some things slow, but also he gets to a lot of rubato and stuff that I often enough don't care for. Celibidache was famous for slow renditions, but it depends on how slow you're willing to go; his Bruckner 8 lasts close to two full hours. However, his various performances of Ravel's Bolero are hands down the best I've ever heard, precisely because he doesn't rush anything forward and allows the build-up of tension so central to the piece.


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## GoingForBaroque (Sep 26, 2010)

Thank you very much, World Violist. I have just looked up Sergiu Celibidache on Wikipedia. I am definitely going check out some of his work. I was wondering if you know of a nice moderately slow rendition of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos? They are so beautiful, and most of what I ever find is once again, played way too fast. Those concertos are so wonderfully composed, and all the incredible complexities of the piece are lost, because the listener misses them at that faster tempo.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

GoingForBaroque said:


> Thank you very much, World Violist. I have just looked up Sergiu Celibidache on Wikipedia. I am definitely going check out some of his work. I was wondering if you know of a nice moderately slow rendition of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos? They are so beautiful, and most of what I ever find is once again, played way too fast. Those concertos are so wonderfully composed, and all the incredible complexities of the piece are lost, because the listener misses them at that faster tempo.


I'm afraid I don't know all that much about the Brandenburg Concerti. Just looking around on Amazon, here are a few that stuck out:

Jordi Savall, which is referred to as being more melodic than frenetic: http://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Bran...r_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1285521016&sr=1-22

Masaaki Suzuki; if anyone is going to make something seem less frenetic than it really is, it's going to be him: http://www.amazon.com/Brandenburg-C...r_1_23?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1285521016&sr=1-23

and if these two are still too fast... you could always go for Karajan's big-band recording with the entire Berlin Philharmonic: http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Brandenburg-Concertos-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B000001GXX/ref=pd_cp_m_1

Hope these help!


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## GoingForBaroque (Sep 26, 2010)

Cool thanks, World Violist. I am going to check out all of those suggestions.


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