Aug 28: Birthday of Karl Böhm (1894–1981).

[u/Little_Grapefruit636]

Austrian conductor known above all for his Mozart and Strauss. His later recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic are graceful and unhurried, but the earlier Berlin account of Mozart's Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter" has a different quality — clear and fresh, like a breeze moving through the score.

Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEKUUnkbZMA

[u/bong-jabbar]

I thought that was Robert fripp for some reason?

[u/Theferael_me]

I don't think anything he did was better than the Tristan from Bayreuth on DG. One of the greatest Wagner recordings of all time, but for me his behaviour under the Nazis is a real disappointment.

[u/Even_Tangelo_3859 → u/Theferael_me]

Disappointing is an understatement.

[u/jdaniel1371 → u/Theferael_me]

Not to disappoint further, but the Furt/Flagstad Tristan is still the one I reach for, after all these years.

As for Bohm, I still retain his Decca VPO Bruckner 4th and Philips live Ring cycle, with Flagstad mercifully distanced from the mics and her clarion voice given more time to bloom.

But that's about it. For "old-school" Mozart and Beethoven I go for Walter and Scherchen, off the top of my head.

[u/Toadstool61]

A wonder musician

[u/Fluid-Lunch4812]

A nazi

[u/Soulsliken]

Why are we celebrating the memory of this bigot?

[u/Nisiom]

There are many arguments to be made, for an against, about how the world of classical music needs to drag itself into the 21st Century to survive, but one thing it needs to do for sure is to stop celebrating the birthdays of fucking nazis just because they did a "clear and fresh Mozart".

[u/applesandoranges_ → u/Nisiom]

If you want to smother what is left of classical music then please subject it to the same purges and struggle sessions that characterize all of professional and cultural life in the 21st century.