Maestros
Portraits of Great Conductors, In Person And Rememebred
Packed with interviews, anecdotes and previously unheard material. Music from
the concert hall, opera house and recording studio. Maestros brings alive the music
and personalities of truly outstanding artists with rare intimacy, vividness and veracity.
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PROGRAMME 1
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI – the most flambuoyant conductor of the 20th Century, legendary virtuoso, film star and pioneer who revolutionised orchestral standards, popularised classical music for millions and thrilled – or outraged – his audiences, according to their taste! Including memories of Stokowski from the 1930s to the 1970s and the voice of the Maestro himself
PROGRAMME 2
The charismatic and dynamic PIERRE BOULEZ, a towering historic figure of our time, talking in person about his conducting career and his favourite music and being recalled by musicians who have worked with him. ˜Here was someone who heard everything – absolutely everything” says Kevin Nutty, one of the top orchestral players who tells us just what it was like playing for the avant-garde perfectionist who once said that opera houses should be blown up, but who became one of the most outstanding operatic and orchestral conductors of the 20th Century. Music is by Debussy,
Ravel, Mahler, Stravinsky, Bartok and Boulez.
PROGRAMME 3
The legendary SIR THOMAS BEECHAM is remembered by a host of musicians who were inspired by his hypnotic conducting. “Sir Thomas mesmerised orchestras, instrumentalists and singers
with the most unconventional and unorthodox means. He was a one-off genius, and in our programme musicians relate just how he transfixed and transformed them with a truly magical power.”
PROGRAMME 4
Features the greatly admired SIR COLIN DAVIS, who appears in person and is recalled by many musicians who have played with him during the last 40 years. Sir Colin can be heard conducting and talking about some of his most famous interpretations, including Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Britten’s Peter Grimes.
PROGRAMME 5
HERBERT VON KARAJAN, one of the most powerful and influential performers of all time. Karajan’s voluptuous sound and Rolls-Royce style were immediately recognisable whenever and wherever he conducted. Not everyone liked his music-making, but no-one who performed with him
or who heard him was unaffected by him. Our programme reincarnates his mesmeric influence with many first-hand memories, including my own, and recordings of Karajan conducting and rehearsing great orchestral and operatic scores.
PROGRAMME 6
In this edition ESA PEKKA SALONEN, the brilliant Finnish conductor with a virtuoso technique and phenomenal memory talks about his meteoric career and some of his favourite music, including great masterpieces by Debussy, Stravinsky and Mahler. Also taking part are members of the Philharmonia Orchestra who recall Maestro Salonen’s sensational debut when he learned and mastered Mahler’s 3rd Symphony at just a few day’s notice.
PROGRAMME 7 SERGE KOUSSEVITSKY,
one of the great and legendary conducting giants. Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra recall how the flamboyantly inspirational and sometimes outrageously behaved Koussevitsky made the Orchestra one of the most beautiful sounding and brilliantly virtuoso ensembles of all time. The Maestro’s remarkable versatility is represented by his performances of music by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovitch, Copland, Sibelius and Ravel.
PROGRAMME 8
Features the conductor who has been at the helm of his own famous creation for over half a century: SIR NEVILLE MARRINER talks about his remarkable career with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and conducts music by Chabrier, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Massenet.
PROGRAMME 9
One of the most extraordinary life-stories in all music comes alive in this profile of the great conductor and towering personality OTTO KLEMPERER. The colossal will-power with which Klemperer overcamechronic and severely traumatic physical and mental suffering was akin to the immense strength of his artistic convictions and the intense force of his musical communication. In our programme we take a close look at his astonishing life and career with vivid memories of his rehearsals and performances and extracts from live and studio recordings ranging from his wild and electrifying pre-war days to his deeply serious and magisterial last years.
PROGRAMME 10
One of today’s greatest musicians and personalities, brilliant & charismatic VLADIMIR ASKENAZY who first became world-famous when he stunned the jury of the International Tschaikovsky
Competition in 1962, jointly winning the first prize with John Ogdon. Now and indeed for many years one of the world’s most sought after conductors, Maestro Ashkenazy talks about his colourful and historic career, from his early days in the environment of Soviet Russia up to the present time as he wins great acclaim at the helm of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Also taking part are members of the Philharmonia Orchestra, which enjoys a very close association with Maestro Ashkenazy.
PROGRAMME 11
Perhaps the most famous conductor of all time – musicians were terrified of him but they loved him and he inspired them to incandescent heights of artistry and virtuosity. The legendary ARTURO TOSCANINI is recalled with musicians from the BBC Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestras who can never forget the thrill and magic of playing with the fanatical perfectionist who irrevocably revolutionised performance standards. The programme includes Toscanini rehearsing music by Verdi and Beethoven, and extracts from his live concerts conducting the BBC Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestras.
PROGRAMME 12
One of the master conductors of our time with an unrivalled orchestral and operatic versatility, the brilliant and dynamic SIR CHARLES MACKERRAS. Sir Charles talks about his kaleidoscopic and picture postcard career from his apprenticeship in Prague in the 1940s, when he discovered the music of Janacek, of whom he is the undisputed leading interpreter, through his innovative directorship of the English National Opera, to his recent triumphs in Czechoslovakia conducting Mozart, Martinu, and Dvorak – and not forgetting his pioneering recording of the original version of Handel’s Fireworks Music with 26 oboes, 14 bassoons, 9 trumpets, 9 horns, 9 drummers – and more!
PROGRAMME 13
They used to call him The High Priest of Music – and yet he had to undergo the trauma of a denazification trial in Berlin. In this week’s Maestros of the 20th Century the great German conductor WILHELM FURTWANGLER is recalled by musicians who were hypnotised by his magnetic powers. Amongst the artists in conversation is the late Yehudi Menuhin, who can be heard in part of the Brahms Violin Concerto conducted by Furtwangler, who also performs music by Beethoven, Wagner, Schubert and Strauss.
PROGRAMME 14
The great conductor CLAUDIO ABBADO makes an extremely rare appearance in person talking about his relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and also the remarkable Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, which he founded, and he will be conducting music by Brahms, Prokofiev, Ravel, Berg, Hindemith, Dvorak, and Verdi. Also appearing on the programme are members of the London Symphony and Royal Opera Orchestras who explain the inspiration and excitement of playing with Maestro Abbado.
PROGRAMME 15
Placido Domingo says “His gifts – musical and dramatic insights, analytical abilities, technique, methods of explaining himself – make him the greatest conductor of our day.” The extraordinary virtuoso CARLOS KLEIBER – His former colleagues who were mesmerised by him when he conducted them at the Royal Opera House and with the London Symphony Orchestra. The programme includes Kleiber conducting music by Beethoven, Weber, Verdi, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Berg, and Brahms.