Oh I am glad you mentioned Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. I love everything I have heard of his, such energy and balance. It is a tragedy there are not more recordings of his in the world. A fantastic conductor.

Mata's Ravel was great. I also heard him do some excellent Bartok in the concert hall. Leinsdorf was like the Toyota Corolla of conductors: You might not get a life-changing experience, but you could always expect solid, sensible work.

Maybe an idea for another video, "dead" labels that have been resurected on streaming platforms like Collins Classics, Koch-Schwann or Westminster.

I'm very glad you mentioned both Leinsdorf and Fruhbeck de Burgos. Both charismatically challenged but with all that musicianship who cares? Among other goodies Leinsdorf conducted the RCA recording of the 1960 Met Macbeth with Warren, Rysanek, Bergonzi and Hines. What's not to like? Superb. Fruhbeck de Burgos' EMI Haydn Creation with the Philarmonia, Donath, Tear and VanDam is one of my own personal Dave's Faves.

Glad you mentioned Christoph Eschenbach! I saw him live just yesterday(!) at Athens music hall, here in Greece. He performed Mahler Symphony no. 2 with the Athens State Orchestra. Really a brilliant and emotional performance!

Okko Kamu's 1987 BIS disc which couples the 1st and 3rd symphonies by Aulis Sallinen (plus other works by Sallinen, but non-Kamu led) remains a thing of wonder - an indispensable disc that is still in print!

The best Verdi Requiem I ever heard live was Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos' final performance as Principal Conductor of the Orquesta National de España, in 1978. Simply superb!

Edo spent a lot of time in Sydney running the SSO and I think retrospectively people still think he did a pretty good job.

In 2019 I heard Flor conduct the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi and was so disturbed/amused by the concert that I wrote a blog post I titled "The Tantrum Maestro". I'm not sure what was going on with him and/or the orchestra that night but he seemed angry, and the angrier he got the more bemused the orchestra looked. There were even moments during the music where I could hear him yelling at the orchestra. It actually made me uncomfortable, like when you were a kid and your friend's parents started to argue in front of you. I lived in Minnesota during the de Waart years and was amused to hear you mention his divorces. At least locally in some snide circles, he was known as Edo de Vorce.

Some fans solved the Burgos problem by referring to him as “R F de B”. I had great admiration for him.

I am glad you took up Jukka-Pekka Saraste. He is in my opinion a very good conductor, in general I loved his conducting of Beethoven symphonies (and of ..... Bruckner).

de Waart announced this week his retirement.

Great list!

It's too bad that Myung-whun Chung did not get to finish his promising Dvorak symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic under DG. The recordings were well received, especially by Gramophone, and I in particular find them enjoyable.

I've been collecting Litton's BIS recordings lately. I'm really glad he wound up there, because the recording quality is stellar more often than not.

Release the Neeme Järvi complete Deutsche Grammophon recordings box already!

Fell in love with Leinsdorf's '66 Lohengrin I got for a birthday present when it came out. In his book (can't remember the title offhand) he relates that he had a terrible time with the mezzo who sang Ortrud, Rita Gorr. Had to do a huge number of takes. One critic described his tenure with Boston as "dry as dust". I heard him do a routine Schubert 8th at the Hollywood Bowl in '81, I think. Then he announced to the audience that since California was experiencing a drought, the orchestra would now play J. Srauss Jr.'s "Thunder and Lightning Polka".

Dave, I'm a pilot, and I promise not to go beyond listening! Your videos are always interesting.

Enjoyed this very much, Dave. Just wondering how many major conductors have dumped their record labels and made a better deal elsewhere?

Very interesting talk, thank you Dav! May be you can also do a video on records that were promoted by major labels like gems but are actually CD from hell, one such example immediately comes to my mind is Solti's Schubert Great by Decca

Hi Dave! What a interesting subject. I may hazard another conductor for the list. One ive heard live over the years, on many visits up to Cleveland. That is of course Christoph von Dohnányi. I recall the fanfare, and excitement locally when he began his Cleveland Ring cycle for Decca. I think he ended up making das rheingold. And walkure, before decca pulled the plug, due to production costs, fees etc. It seems his Decca recordings stopped about then. Now im not sure who dumped whomever, Dohannyi was pretty upset by the cancelation, so maybe it was mutual. He did record for Telarc, but it seemed his Decca efforts were over except perhaps for some Bruckner, already in the pipeline. Paul

I first encountered Saraste through his recording of Beethoven's Eroica coupled with Mozart's No. 39. A great disc, IMHO. I wish he'd done more Beethoven - which I believe he didn't. And it is issued by Erato!

I should think ihat Hans Schmidt Isserstedt & Hans Vonk might be added on this very appropriated list.

I saw de Burgos conduct Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra a few years before he passed. Certainly at the top of the CB's I've seen, although I also saw their Pops conductor lead it at Wolftrap one summer which was quite memorable. For those who don't know it, Wolftrap is an open-air venue and that night's Carmina was accompanied by a thunderstorm. The performance wasn't as spectacular as de Burgos', but you really couldn't ask for more atmosphere and ambience. :-)

Litton recorded briefly for Decca, a series of absolutely excellent Walton discs. Andrew Davis also did a Planets in Toronto for EMI, but I think that was a one-off for that label.

Kamu also recorded for EMI early on while on DG.

Do you ever read the CC translations? The mistakes are frequent and hilarious to the point of embarrassment.

Frühbeck de Burgos was an amazing conductor! I was fortunate to sing Beethoven’s 9th with him in the chorus! He was an amazing conductor-accompanist in concerti and for me his Carmen is still the best!!! (which, by the way, deserves a good remastering and decent presentation)

Unfortunately, your warnings about the dangers of amateur piloting will fall on deaf ears. The desire to steer is innate to a certain type of person. Herbert von Karajan did indeed piloted jets! How appropriate was that! I consider this to be a very dangerous manifestation of a "déformation professionnelle".

Saraste's early RCA Sibelius with the Finnish RSO (practically all of it) is pretty much a reference "clump" for me & so much better than Colin Davis' 2nd cycle with the LSO (his 1st cycle on Philips with Boston is much better). Talking of Philips, Eliahu Inbal started out recording on Philips & then switched to Denon & then...dumped! Not major though: I know - but glad I saw him do some great live Mahlers in London: I know - doesn't count! Oh & Paavo Berglund on EMI & then dumped! 🙂

I suppose this all depends upon how contracts are written, but if an artist records with a label, then leaves the label, and subsequent to that the label releases box sets, does the artist still get royalties even though he/she isn't with the record company any more?

Thank you. I remember them and have several of their recordings. I did not know they had been chopped by the labels. I read Edo de Waart passed away the other day.

How much of being dumped by a label is due to the conductor losing the respect (or never even gaining it) of the major orchestras that he worked with? In the 1990s I witnessed one of the conductors on your dump list (I won't name him) who was so obviously disliked and almost derided by the orchestra that he was rehearsing, it was embarrassing to watch. I honestly don't know if this attitude was justified, but it made me wonder if it could have influenced the label.

A pretty much forgotten set of recordings with Andrew Davis in Toronto is his set of all three (2.5) Borodin symphonies. Nobody did them then, and not many do them now (except for the second, a bit) so even if the sound was only so-so it was a worthy project. Pity they used voices in the Polovtsian dances, but - so be it. A nice set to have had. Probably not one to go for today, but in its time? Very nice indeed.

Edo de Waart was a big name here in New Zealand for a few years. He might have picked up a wife or two as well.

You can say that again…( regarding great artists in air crashes): Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, JP Richardson ( Big Bopper ), Ronnie Van Zant, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Denver, Ricky Nelson, etc.

I saw Myung-whun Chung conduct Shostakovich 5 with the CSO. It was breathtaking, but somehow the Resound recording (which may well be the same performance) doesn’t thrill me. Maybe you had to be there.

Franz Welser-Möst is now only a major label artist around new year. For all the other days he can be on this list as well.

At least Neeme Järvi has been able to record a couple of CDs…😉 Does he actually hold some record just for the sheer number of recordings?

Stokowski was a major label jumper. I've always wondered why.

I'd be interested to hear about all the orchestras "dumped" by major labels, but that would nearly every one, especially the American orchestras. Granted, they were overexposed during the heyday of the classical music recording industry, a period twice mentioned in the Andsnes box by Andsnes and Harriet Smith. The major American orchestras have mostly relied on their own recording labels, but those releases have been few and far between. There's nothing recent from the NY Phil., The Philadelphia Orchestra , or SFSO labels. Chicago releases 2-3 every year. Cleveland started its label at the start of the pandemic and, except for the past 3 years, Welser-Most's time there is unrecorded. Berlin has gone the coffee table album route and I don't think Vienna records much all except for their New Year Concerts. The LSO, Concertgebouw, and Bavarian Radio have released more often.

Hello Dave. Have you done a talk about the general music industry implosion? If not it would be interesting. When did the first signs turn up? 1994?

Face it, major labels only care about making money on a very narrow vein of repertoire. Once a rising / marketable / established name conductor has served his due, he will be dumped for someone younger and more marketable. It's the same with soloists. Can anyone imagine Neeme Jarvi conducting Fucik, Suchon, Halvorsen or Amy Beach on any other label than Chandos? Decca or Deutsche Grammophon? Nope.

Andrew Davis got the call from Chandos when Richard Hickox died suddenly and left some unfinished series (e.g. Holst and Vaughan Williams).

In 1960 or 1961 HMV/Columbia had a mini massacre in which the contracts of Kempe, Markevitch, Kletzki and (I think) von Matacic were all terminated, apparently on the grounds of poor sales. There could have been some others too such as Kurtz but am not too certain of this. I have never quite understood why the breach came between HMV & RCA in 1957 - was it because of anti-trust/monopoly laws? In the event HMV lost Toscanini, Munch, Reiner, Monteux and Stokowski from their listings.

Dave..consider doing a video on curent over rated conductors

As a player with much disdain for conductors this kind of pleases me. Did you hear the one about the violinist who died and went to heaven?

Marriner was dumped by Philips when the market collapsed.

Does Christoph von Dohnanyi count for this?

I could be wrong, but I believe I read that Columbia dumped George Szell and Cleveland, hence their move to Angel/EMI.

What about Haitink? Didn’t Philips dump him in the midst of a Berlin Mahler cycle and a Vienna Bruckner cycle?

What about Muti? Dumped by EMI and then by Phillips.

I’m not overall the greatest fan of Wagner, (though I do like the Ring Cycle) however Leinsdorf’s “Die Walkure” is an absolute winner.

I thought Chung got launched on Bis doing Nielsen, and moved to DG later. Nevermind

I’d love to know about William Christie. Did he ditch Harmonia Mundi, a company which did so much to promote him in French baroque. He went to Erato and made good recordings, but later returned to HM, as well as doing thing on Les Arts Flo's own label

Eschenbach was a fine pianist, although with less flashy things like Mozart. His technique didn't quite win him the same number of friends as a conductor.

Hypothesis; Could it be that none of the conductors or labels in the list wasn't that "major" anyway, or that they reached their "expiry date" quite early in their careers, DGG as a label has f.x. not been either major or an interesting label (with very few exceptions) since at least four decades. And since all of the so called majors shut down their recording departments not any or very little of the financing of "New" recordings have been coming from the labels, most everything since the eighties have been funded by benefactors to the Orchestras, Conductors and/or Solo Artists featured (and in some cases government bodies within f.x. the EU.) I feel that the extinction of the major labels are a good thing on the whole, it will allow the rise of new forms of classical music species to evolve, it will show that Darwin was correct in his assumptions! 😉 BTW; I find it quite heartening that there still are so many Corporations and Well off individuals (outside of the industry) that are willing to make funds available that we get an abundance of new releases every month!

Am I the only one who can't hear anything?