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Double Bass Favorite Orchestra?

#61
I just heard a recording of Beethoven's 8th with Minnesota with Osmo Vanska. The orchestra is incredibly accurate but Vanska is IMHO very cold in his reading. The orchestra was very well rehearsed and his control was absolute, but emotionally very distant. The basses sounded good but didn't really rock the house in the climaxes.
 
#62
I also just heard the London Symphony Orchestra play Beethoven's 3rd (Eroica) with Bernard Haitink, and they sounded truly incredible. I had never been a fan of either Haitink or the LSO, but this recording puts them on the top of my list along with Vienna and Berlin orchestras.

The extra treat was the oboes, who were so free and lyrical, unlike our American-Canadian colleagues (sorry, I really don't mean to offend anybody).
 
#63
Dr Rod said:
I also just heard the London Symphony Orchestra play Beethoven's 3rd (Eroica) with Bernard Haitink, and they sounded truly incredible. I had never been a fan of either Haitink or the LSO, but this recording puts them on the top of my list along with Vienna and Berlin orchestras.

The extra treat was the oboes, who were so free and lyrical, unlike our American-Canadian colleagues (sorry, I really don't mean to offend anybody).
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hehe, I agree that the LSO has always had a beautiful oboe tone. Even if you date back to the 70's, really gorgeous playing.

PS: Rod, how is the Thunder Bay orchestra? Is it true that you and Matt are the only bassists?
 
#67
I think the BSO has a seriously awesome bass section. I heard them a whole lot this summer under Levine, Ozawa, Davis, Haitink...they are really incredible and so tight. I think their bass section is really unbeatable, too.

Definitely NY under Bernstein is awesome. I just heard a recording of them playing Bernstein conducted by Bernstein and that was amazing.

MET Orchestra is always one of my favorites though I have yet to hear them in concert (outside of the opera house, that is). Their bass section is pretty wicked, too. I saw them do Marriage of Figaro last year. I've never seen a bass section so incredibly together.

Royal Concertgebouw is also great. No complaints there. Just got a recording of them with Haitink doing some Strauss tone poems - the best ever!
 
#69
p.nemeth said:
What was wrong with the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan?
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as a human being i've never been fond of von karajan. many people believe there is a distinction between a person on and off stage but i disagree. i see music making as a form of artwork and a representation of humanity and i think being someone respectable on and off the stage is intertwined. if you don't understand my views towards von karajan, there are plenty of books and articles about his anti-semitism, some captured in the video; great conductors of the third reich. i strongly believe people of the germanic tradition are some of the most skillful music makers ever born, but i still find a lot of fault in what happened in that orchestra under his leadership.
 
#70
I've never heard about Karajan being anti-semitic. What books or articles talk about this? Furtwangler also conducted under the Third Reich and he was anything but anti-semitic. There is a good documentary about the Berlin Phil that was made in 2004. "The Berlin Philharmonic Story"
 
#72
Although this thread seems well asleep, I thought I'd throw in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under Barenboim. They're not brilliant perhaps but they've got guts. I saw them in Brussels in August just as Israel was fighting in Lebanon and the UN was trying to broker a deal.
Amongst other things, they played Bottesini's Fantasia on themes by Rossini for Cello, Double Bass and Orchestra.
Unfortunately the programme doesn't credit the (DB) soloist. Boy can he play!
 
#74
Cory Palmer said:
I've never heard about Karajan being anti-semitic. What books or articles talk about this? Furtwangler also conducted under the Third Reich and he was anything but anti-semitic. There is a good documentary about the Berlin Phil that was made in 2004. "The Berlin Philharmonic Story"
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Karajan was known for conducting in his Nazi uniform. I haven't done a lot of research about it, he might have been forced into doing it, but he is known as being anti-semitic.
 
#75
Karajan voluntarily applied for Nazi party membership in 1933, long before it could have been considered a professional necessity. The only thing that saved him from post-war disgrace was the fact that Hitler despised him (solely on musical grounds). For more, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karajan

Furtwangler was a more complicated case. He didn't seek out the Nazis the way Karajan did, but neither did he completely disassociate himself from them -- and he had an offer to succeed Toscanini with the New York Phil in 1938 that he turned down in favor of a gig in Berlin. For more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Furtwängler
 
#76
Pete G said:
Karajan voluntarily applied for Nazi party membership in 1933, long before it could have been considered a professional necessity. The only thing that saved him from post-war disgrace was the fact that Hitler despised him (solely on musical grounds). For more, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karajan

Furtwangler was a more complicated case. He didn't seek out the Nazis the way Karajan did, but neither did he completely disassociate himself from them -- and he had an offer to succeed Toscanini with the New York Phil in 1938 that he turned down in favor of a gig in Berlin. For more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Furtwängler
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Furtwangler didn't turn down the gig, a petition was signed by many high up New York concert go-ers to not have him associated with their orchestra. Was it the New York Phil or NBC Symphony?

Karajan definetly used the Nazi party to gain politcal grounding which would definetly help his career. He fled to Italy partly during WWII and denied any Nazi Party affiliation, but it is still rumoured (without good proof) that he also acted as a member of the secret police.

Furtwangler while he despised the Jewish race still found compassion for the musicians of his own orchestra and did everything within his means to save the families as well as the members of the Berlin Philharmonic who had Jewish ties. This isn't exactly justifiable in my opinion; I look at it from an opportunistic standpoint where he didn't want the high tradition of musical value to leave the orchestra, versus having actual human compassion and emotions.
 
#78
I've actually found Wikipedia to be pretty accurate on most subjects that I've checked (and cross-checked). It provides readers an opportunity to correct and update current entries, and in my experience that feature has kept the entries honest.

I would urge Bruce or anyone else who has better sources to correct the info on Furtwangler and Karajan. That's kind of the point of Wikipedia.

That said, to Snakewood I'll provide one more Wiki link, which, consistent with the Wiki entry for Furtwangler, suggests that the NY Phil did indeed offer the job to Furtwangler, but after the offer was accepted, public opinion in NYC (fanned to some extent by a Nazi PR campaign) caused the offer to become moot:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Philharmonic_Orchestra#The_War_Years.2C_1940
 
#79
Wikipedia has been proven to be quite accurate, even among the professionally edited encyclopedias. Vandals are dealt with quickly and false information is more often than not made right.

That being said, I still don't source it when I am writing a paper, though I may go to wikipedia to get a general idea/find other, more realistic sources.

But back to the topic at hand...
 
#80
kontrabass said:
Wikipedia has been proven to be quite accurate, even among the professionally edited encyclopedias. Vandals are dealt with quickly and false information is more often than not made right.
...
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Not my experience!!
:hmm:

And there are several ongoing cases of defamation of character....:scowl:
 

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