Maazel Esoteric

Lorin Varencove Maazel was born of American parents in Neuilly, France on March 6, 1930 and the family returned to Los Angeles when Lorin was still an infant. He exhibited a remarkable ear and musical memory when very young; he had perfect pitch and sang back what he heard. He was taken at age five to study violin with Karl Moldrem. At age seven he started studying piano with Fanchon Armitage. When he became fascinated with conducting, his parents took him to symphony concerts, then arranged for him to have lessons with Vladimir Bakaleinikov, then assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Gustav Mahler - Complete Symphonies Nos. 1-9 - Lorin Maazel (2017) {15CD Box Set Signum Classics SIGCD363}
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© 2017 Signum Classics | SIGCD363
Classics / Romantic / Symphonies

Led by Lorin Maazel, the Philharmonia Orchestra are captured at their very best in these live performances of Mahler's Nine Symphonies. Recorded in concert at London's Royal Festival Hall, the symphonies include performances by soloists and ensembles including Sarah Connolly, Michelle Deyoung, Philharmonia Voices and the BBC Symphony Chorus. Praise for these performances has been near universal…'You get that audience perspective as if you were sitting in the hall, and its got all the energy and focus of a live or concert recording.' (BBC Radio 3) '…Maazel could sustain this score in a way that seemed to transcend reality…a tremendously moving experience.' (Classical Source) 'an extraordinary reading of the Ninth…a performance touched by greatness.' (Musicweb International).

The fiftieth anniversary of Toscanini’s death in 2007 was celebrated with gala concerts around the world, one of the most glamorous events being this benefit concert at the basilica of St Mark’s in Venice. The 11-year-old child prodigy Lorin Maazel once met the Italian maestro in New York, and Toscanini’s legacy left a permanent mark on Maazel as a musician. His tour with the Symphonica Toscanini, called “In the Footsteps of Toscanini”, culminated in two concerts in Venice featuring Verdi’s Requiem, a showpiece of Toscanini’s, and St Mark’s, the birthplace of stereophonic and quadraphonic sound, proved to be an ideal venue for this eloquent and musically impressive confessional work.

The last recording of conductor Lorin Maazel. World-famous conductor Lorin Maazel was chief conductor of the Münchner Philharmoniker until shortly before his death in July 2014 at the age of 84. This live recording, which happened in February 2014, is probably the last recording of Maazel. It documents an acclaimed and moving concert in the Munich Philharmonie with Lorin Maazel and the Münchner Philharmoniker and their choir per-forming Verdi’s famous requiem. The excellent soloists were Anja Harteros (soprano), Daniela Barcellona (mezzo-soprano), Wookyung Kim (tenor) and Georg Zeppenfeld (bass).

These performances were recorded in the early 1980s when the Berlin Philharmonic was still very much Herbert von Karajan's orchestra (though their relationship had begun to deteriorate).

Burnished brass and a nuanced understanding of the massive architecture of Bruckner's symphonies provided the underpinnings of Lorin Maazel's Bruckner cycle in Munich from January through March 1999. The subtle intricacies of Maazel's distinguished readings are fully captured in the live recordings of those performances, now available as a boxed set.

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major, “Titan” – Wiener Philharmoniker, Lorin Maazel
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 218 MB | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Full scans | RS links
Publisher: Sony Classical | Year of release: 2001

A Masterful Performance - This performance of Mahler's first symphony must rank among the interpretations of Walter, Bernstein, Horenstein, all great Mahler conducters. Lorin Maazel's tempos are always intriguing, at times slower than the norm, other times, faster. Never a dull moment in this, or any of the other Mahler Symphonies recorded by Maazel with the Vienna Philharmonic on their 150th Anniversary. Regarding the orchestra itself, it must be the ultimate Mahler orchestra, the string sections a perfect example of musical warmth and the brass a terrific example of power. If you can find the entire set as it was released originally, as 14 Compact Discs, please buy it, the performances are worthy of the extra money. If you cannot find it, purchase the symphonies separately as Sony re-releases them. Definitely worth it for these amazing performances. - from Amazon.com

Maazel's performances appear not only on audio recordings but on film - he was the conductor for film versions of Don Giovanni (Joseph Losey's award-winning adaptation, mentioned below), Carmen and Franco Zeffirelli's interpretation of Otello.
Although primarily known as a conductor, Maazel was no stranger to composition himself, arranging material from Wagner's Ring Cycle into a 75-minute suite, The Ring Without Words, and composing an opera based on George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four; and as if this were not enough, he was also an accomplished violinist (see below for a recording of his performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons)…

This survey of Strauss cello works includes one of the finest Don Quixotes since Pierre Fournier’s matchlessly aristocratic Berlin and Cleveland accounts. Steven Isserlis first met Cervantes’ “Knight of Rueful Countenance” a decade ago when he recorded the work for Virgin with the Minnesota Orchestra under Edo de Waart. You could take absolute technical command for granted, but what was doubly impressive was the way Isserlis brought out the Don’s internalized conflicts (an old man’s obsession with chivalry nullified by failing physical powers) so vividly. His insights emerge even more potently in this remake with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian RSO. It’s impeccably delivered, with outstanding solo playing from Isserlis and his equally fine (but un-credited) Sancho Panza (viola) and also from the orchestra’s concertmaster.

It was George Szell who made the Cleveland Orchestra into a highly responsive virtuoso body, and when he died in 1970 he was in due course succeeded by Lorin Maazel, himself a renowned orchestral trainer. Here is Maazel's first Cleveland recording, notable for a quite outstanding quality of orchestral playing. The strings in particular have a remarkable depth of tone, though they play with great delicacy when it is needed; but then the orchestra as a whole plays with extraordinary virtuosity, tonal weight and exactness of ensemble. If the woodwind have a somewhat piquant blend this suits the music, which throughout is admirably served by Maazel's highly rhythmic, dramatic conducting.