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I was at Carnegie Hall for Kyung-Wha Chung's 6 Bach SONATAS and PARTITAS !!!
Unbelievable !!!
As for the SCOTTISH, with Solti and the CSO..--I just finished a wonderful book by a former timpanist of the London Phil. very outspoken fellow he was...and an excellent timpanist.
THE SPECIAL TIMPANIST by Alan Cumberland 2014
I will share something just for kicks....
At the end he speaks about the many great and not so great conductors who stood on the box in front of the LPO during his 20 years there.
He refers to Solti variously as GS, the crazy Hungarian, the conducting monkey, the iguana.
""Sir Georg Solti was a bastard. Nicholas Busch, our extraordinary, wonderful principal horn for many years, described him in the expose, "THE ORCHESTRA," as 'awful--the worst conductor ever.' He was detested by virtually every member of the LPO. His idea of making beautiful music was to encourage us to play with the shrillest, nastiest sound whenever the dynamic was above mp. Bereft of any stick technique whatsoever, he was arrogant. rude and ruthless. On one occasion the rehearsal was cancelled when he was taken to hospital after stabbing himself with his baton. He had what we called, 'perfect ears,' NO HOLES! In rehearsals, I must admit to being rather naughty and tuned my drums to notes that were as far removed from the required pitches as I could and then hit them (at the rim or in the center) rather louder than was required, much to the orchestra's delight. Not a flinch from the box. My colleagues encouraged me to play as forcefully as I could. Still no reaction. I mean, Mozart JUPITER SYMPHONY in Bb and high F#! "
"At concerts, with one shoulder forward, he would lungs toward the podium upon which he would stand convulsing, as if receiving CPR. It was reminiscent of being at London Zoo, in the ape enclosure. His involuntary muscular spasms could easily have been interpreted as an up-beat, but as we all knew, there were no up-beats--they were all downbeats with his elbows. The man was incapable of starting anything. Four preparatory beats to begin LA BOHEME! I ask you. Wholly mistimed slashed of the stick and rolling body movements resembling a crashing motorcyclist were commonplace in his performances, during which he often practiced the art of gurning. The more tender passages were best likened to a snake in the final stages of sloughing. Despite of having to contend with all this, the orchestra invariably played brilliantly, only for him to take all the credit and us, none."
And on and on for 3 pages...
I was in stitches.
special effort, just for you..
I';m watching a conducting seminar with Gatti and the Concertgebouw.
BTW.. about 150 videos of the RCO are now available for FREE.. check out their FB page. You may have to hunt a bit...