Preview: Carlo Maria Giulini's 10 Best Recordings--Spiritual, or Just Dull?

Carlo Maria Giulini had a remarkable career. Not known for his performances of the German standard repertoire, with no interest is contemporary or lesser known music, he made and remade recordings of a select number of pieces without anyone taking him to task for it. His seriousness, courteous demeanor, and spiritual intensity were such that he almost precluded criticism. Nevertheless, as with all major artists who spent substantial time in the recording studio, the multiplicity of versions makes it relatively easy to separate the superb from the merely good.

[christopherrussell]

For me, Giulini is one of the greats. Some of his recordings like Brahms 1 with LA or Bruckner 8 with Vienna are really the gold standard. It's not really true that he was not interested in contemporary music. He did it, albeit sparingly. In Los Angeles, I heard him do a knockout performance of William Schuman's 3rd Symphony. and he also premiered several works like Ezra Laderman's 4th Symphony. His performance of Webern's Six Pieces was also stunning. Much to my surprise, he also conducted Shostakovich's 14th Symphony a few times. He was supposed to do it in LA but he became ill and they brought in the young Simon Rattle to give up his spring break as a student at Oxford and take over.

[ritawing]

I sang in performances and recordings in the 70's with Giulini: unrepeatable experiences, lifetime highs, I count myself most fortunate to have seen and heard music with him.

[robertseath]

The greatest conductor I ever heard live, along with Gunter Wand

[DavidJohnson-ofvh]

Thank you. I greatly enjoy the Giulini recodings I have. His Verdi Requiem is one of my favorites. I have always liked his Bruckner 9 with the CSO.

[pierrevigna]

For some reason, Giulini used to come to Paris once a year to conduct the Orchestre de Paris and it was each time a "love at first sight" affair with the musicians. For me no one at the time was making that orchestra sing the way Giulini was able to do it.

[vincentspinelli]

Thanks very much for this insightful analysis of Giulini. I completely agree about the Don Giovanni. It is still a marvel after all these years. I never understood the criticisms about Waechter. Maybe he wasn't always silky smooth, but neither was the Don. Thanks too for the recognition of his Tchaikovsky 6th. It is one of my very favorite recordings of the piece, elegant and extremely moving and for early stereo it still sounds wonderful. It seems to be forgotten today sadly.

[edoardopesce]

Well the answer is, as he always said, that he could only conduct the music he felt in his soul, and he was a very sensitive and kind of ethereal human being. In his last years he found comfort in his music for his heavy familiar sufferings. But as a Christian (he was deeply and authentically religious) he knew that suffering is a educational experience. When his beloved wife fell ill he said "why me?". Then, he understood that the right answer was "why not me?". You have to listen to his Bruckner 9th, his Verdian Requiem (one of his last concerts: at Lingotto, Turin, in 1998), his Missa Solemnis and also his never abandoned Brahms (especially the "extreme" symphonies, the First and the Fourth ones) to catch this spirit of Giulini. I think his live performances, also on disc, suited him best. He didn't like to "edit" too much.

[richardallen]

Wonderful critique of CMG. I grew up playing his Angel recording of Le Nozze di Figaro as a boy of 13 and even yesterday played it on CD for the millionth time. His Rossini overtures also are another fav of mine as I played that record to death. That was the disc which introduced me to my lifelong love of Rossini operas and choral works.

[swimmad]

I saw CMG with LAPO in London twice in the late 1970s. The Eroica and Pathetique were magnificent in a rather studied fashion, leaving me impressed rather than moved. His Falstaff at Covent Garden was a similar experience. Despite this I would rate his two recordings of Bruckner 8 with the VPO (DG) and BPO (Testament) amongst the most all encompassing versions of this great work, with a slight preference for the live BPO version.

[Mezzotenor]

Thanks for the Giulini summary - conductor for whom I have embarrassingly few recordings.

[hendriphile]

During a WFMT CSO retrospective years ago, the host, when discussing CMG’s CSO recording of “Pictures, ” said that “Giulini puts a gold frame around each picture.”
A good description.

[carlcurtis]

Love his Pictures at an Exhibition with the. CSO: great sound, great conducting, great playing.

[dennischiapello]

His was the first recording of Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony that I liked. This was mainly because he kept the third-movement March peppy all the way through to the end, without a pompous slow-down at the final reappearance of the main theme. His Nozze di Figaro has spoiled me, to some extent, for most other versions. I will find beautiful things in others, but always feel wistful for his.

[burke]

Ok. So I became an insider to classics today. and I know it’s not a great reason, but I did it to see your top 10 Giulini recordings.
Of course there are many other better reasons to be an insider. The website looks awesome. And I really am getting a bit tired of Gramophone.
I won’t be an idiot and say what’s on your list.
I will only say, without saying whether it’s on your list or not, that the Giulini Mahler 9 with Chicago is definitely one of the top 5 desert island CDs of my life. I can’t live without it. I know it’s not the favorite of many people for Mahler 9, but for me, it is one of the most moving and transforming recordings I’ve ever heard.
Best to you Mr. Hurwitz.

[fabiopaolobarbieri]

I literally never heard anything as thrilling as his Rossini Stabat Mater. AS for refinement, I have described his Traviata prelude to Act I as the greatest German symphony movement you never heard.

[АлексейИванов-не]

Giulini is one of my favorite conductors. I would highlight two recordings in particular - Brahms' Fourth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Bruckner's Second Symphony with the Vienna Symphony.

[adesiana]

Lucky me to have heard Giulini many times in Amsterdam. To start: my introduction to Falstaff in the Holland Festival. Why he stopped conducting opera's almost completely was his dissatisfaction with the mise-en-scene. Jean Decroos, first cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra made his family attend all rehearsals. I remember Brahms 4, also Roméo et Julliet by Berlioz where the Concertgebouw Orchestra sounded quite different. About Callas: each year he was in church for the mess on the day she died. Integrety: Walter Legge had no longer use of the Philharmonia Orchestra and tried to pull Giulini in this. He refused and kept conducting them, support them. Many favorites; Debussy La Mer and Nocturnes with the Philharmonia, Berlioz' R&J with the Concertgebouw O. (I think it is in a box of the orchestra). All others that are mentioned. I agree about the slow performances in his later years, but didn't experience them live thus.
He will always stay for me as the finest, together with Carlos Kleiber and Claudio Abbado. Abbado i LOVE most, especially his last decenium.

[barryguerrero]

I don't know what your list includes yet, but I would definitely include Giulini's "Don Carlo". His "Das Lied von der Erde" from Berlin (DG) is easily his best Mahler recording. Although, I do have a soft spot for his Chicago Mahler 1 on EMI (Boulez is better in the finale, but I don't like his fast scherzo). I like Giulini's Chicago Bruckner 9th very much too (EMI). Both that B9 and his Vienna one are quite good - among the best. I like his L.A. Brahms 1 (John Cerminaro on Pricipal horn), but his later Vienna Brahms cycle is super slow. I love his Vienna Bruckner 8 for the first three movements, but the finale could have used a bit more cogency, and a Karajan or Wand like coda. His Vienna Bruckner 7 is marred by unexpected harsh sound quality. Few people seem to know that Giulini used Mahler's 'retuschen' for his Schumann "Rhenish" Symphony (I like it). I should get to know Giulini's early Philharmonia recordings better than I do.

[davidwyatt]

Thanks for a sympathetic and truthful look at my favourite (maybe) conductor. I guess I would say intense rather than serious, but I think we both mean the same thing; I always thought he'd be wearing for orchestras to work with regularly but great for occasions, and since that's how he ran his career I guess he might have too... The two observations I'd add: how unexpectedly he proved to be able to 'train up' the LAPO into a really world-class orchestra - not what you'd expect from his fastidious approach; and the surprises in his repertoire (never recorded commercially but available in live soundchecks) like Webern, Busoni, etc from his earlier rep years. Clearly those latter weren't what he wanted to be remembered for, of course. Damn: now I'm going to have to subscribe properly to catch up on those conductor 'best ofs'... 🙂

[flexusmaximus]

Hi Dave, good video. I have several of the late Sony recordings. His Sony Mozart requiem is so smooth so, , , placid, so almost, ok dull. His la scala Beethoven cycle, same thing except for the erotica, which manages to be, interesting even at the slow tempo.
Nothing shows his duality better than his 2 Beethoven 9ths. The earlier London one, while measured in tempo is gripping, dramatic, and carved klemperer like from stone. Well recorded also. His later Berlin 9th, while simular in concept, and tempo is smooth, rounded and yes a bit dull. Yet somehow he was a good Bruckner conductor, I think his Chicago ninth is excellent, even better then his vienna (i know apostasy!). Well, I may break down and subscribe, more to read in my bunker!
Paul