Sergei Koussevitzky. Rehearsal with the BSO in 1943.

Rimsky-Korsakov
Scheherazade - Part IV
Boston Symphony Orchestra
1943

[@tedrobinson372]

No mention of the music: Rimsky Korsakov's Schezerazade!

[@hootenhtn]

Just under two minutes here proves nothing. Koussy would not have lasted 24 years as The BSO's music director if he did not know how to rehearse.

[@minacciosa]

TImes and orchestras have changed radically since then. I don't think he would even have gotten the job today.

[@MrKlemps]

@@minacciosa Agree, but such a decision would have been very much to the discredit of the BSO.

[@minacciosa]

@@MrKlemps In todays climate, it would not be seen as discrediting at all. Standards and aesthetics have changed dramatically. He was a musician of his time and fit well with the ethos of that era. Today, he wouldn’t be missed. Technical standards are so high and there is an endless supply of capable executants, both dynamics that tend to smother the individuality that set such musicians apart back then. Today, the homogeneity of perfection renders moot all else.

[@MrKlemps]

@@minacciosa Yes. That's was really my point. SK sought a deeper perfection. As did even greater conductors of this era like (in their disparate ways) Furtwangler, Walter, and Klemperer.

[@liamsandal6360]

@@minacciosa I've just viewed some of your videos, Mr. Williams. You are a brilliant, beautiful violinist.

[@douglasbower312]

Right - the conductor behind what many people consider the finest orchestra ensemble of all time doesn't know how to lead a rehearsal. Sigh - this is what the Internet has wrought.

[@Dan474834]

Finest orchestra ensemble of all time? LOL

[@ianng9915]

​@@Dan474834if not the Koussevitzky era of the BSO, then who else?😂

[@Dan474834]

@@ianng9915 Vienna Philharmonic? Berlin Philharmonic?

[@minacciosa]

He talks too much; what he said can be shown.

[@drummingwithdylan4755]

To a point IMO. At a certain point you have to just tell it how it is but your point is taken and appreciated.