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In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: List of top 20 conductors on classical-music.com
Post Subject: Well Lenny, HvK and Toscanini are all there; and the survey is by conductors reviewing their peers.Posted by oxric on: 11/9/2020
 steverino wrote:
So the conductor list overweighted to British is expected for BBC. I think Stokowski has to be in the top 10 with Lenny, HvK and Toscanini. As for the festival, if the players are for it I wouldn't stop it. Those under 60 are much less susceptible and non wind players could wear masks if desired. Can't live life hiding under a rock. I think outdoors would be best for players and audience if it could be managed.

Well, Lenny is at No.2 and HvK is at No. 4 and Toscanini is at No. 8...so I think you may have given the list a very cursory glance. Also, note that the list is not derived from BBC reviewers but from a survey of 100 leading conductors (who may or may not be predominantly British, admittedly).

So that leaves Stokowski but the irony is that he was in fact born British, raised in London and attended the Royal College of music there. He deliberately encouraged the mystery about his origins, and emphasized his Polish ancestry to appear more exotic...

We attended several of these concerts at the Wissembourg Festival but missed the last three which were cancelled because of the national lockdown which came in as of Thursday last week. The last concert I went to with the children was of Beethoven last quartets, played ravishingly by Quatuor Ebene.

With the high incidence of cases here in France, I guess it will be at least another 6 weeks before any live concerts are allowed. Open air concerts would be great but I doubt anyone will face the cold temperatures in December to listen to classical music outdoors.

But you are right, I too feel that with appropriate measures and sanitary protocols in place concerts and cultural life should continue. The funny think is that at these concerts, your typical concert goer is typically aged 60 and over. My children, aged 7, 12 and 13 are the youngest and in fact usually the only children in attendance. That is true wherever we have been, in the UK, in France, Italy and Germany, there are very few children and nearly never will you see young people at all...

Best rgds, 
Rakesh

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