Very sad news that conductor Lorin Maazel has passed away, aged 84. I have several of his recordings which I've always loved (I was actually listening to Lloyd Webber's 'Requiem' earlier today). RIP Maestro.
He first conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1962, aged 32 -- and next appeared there (crossing the plaza at Lincoln Center as a short-notice replacement) forty-five years later, in 2008!
His Romeo & Juliet is amazing -- incredible precision and speed. One of my favorite recordings. What a shame.
Berlioz? Gounod? Tchaikovsky? Rota? Delius? Kabalevsky? :-) OK, sorry, I'm pretty sure you mean the complete version of the Prokofiev ballet -- and I quite agree!
I simply ADORED Lorin Maazel. Looking at my iTunes, some of my favorite recordings of his include Stravinsky "Le Sacre Du Printemps," a wonderful Shostakovich 5th symphony with the Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet Fantasy, the gorgeous Mahler 4th as well as the 6th and 7th (all with Vienna), and an amazing Tchaikovsky 4th with Cleveland as well as Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique," also with Cleveland, and an interesting collection called "Symphonic Battle Scenes" with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. And some scintillating Richard Strauss tone poems. And I was able to re-buy some of those CDs on multi-channel SACD. What an absolutely glorious conductor!!!!!
He got mostly lousy press from the NYC critics during his Philharmonic tenure. This puzzled me. I think some writers never forgave him for not being somebody else. A favorite memory: During a Tchaikovsky encore one time, he simply stopped conducting and let the orchestra play on -- splendidly -- while he admired their work from the podium.
