Underrated Classical Musicians: The Old Concertgebouw

 Let's talk briefly about the Old Concertgebouw.

This is, for me, the closest you get to an ideal orchestra. For all their battalion of virtues, the old German orchestras, like the Staatskapelles Dresden and Berlin, or the Leipzig Gewandhaus, have a problem in extremis that seems more of a problem as the decades wear on:

There is so much emphasis on precision and blend and intonation... what can possibly be expressed individually when any expression of individuality come at the expense of the ensemble's aesthetic? There is something about it that's repressive, redolent of the dictatorships under which they thrived.

But the old Concertgebouw has much of the same blend as the great German orchestras from their best periods, but it also has that French distinctness of timbre that draws attention to each and every instrument, and that clarity allows for a massive amount of individual freedom. Listen to the Concertgebouw's many extraordinary soloists, they phrase with a freedom and individuality to which few if any orchestras can compare. The same goes for the Czech Philharmonic, but the Concertgebouw has a cantabile that the Czech Philharmonic's near-staccato attacks do not generally permit.

However you feel about Willem Mengelberg as an interpreter, this orchestra is his achievement, tailor designed for an aesthetic at once beautiful and explosive, capable of visceral passion and relaxed repose. There is nothing like it in all of orchestral music, and if you don't care for Mengelberg, there's always Beinum and Haitink, and if you want a middle ground between Mengelberg's erratic liberties and Haitink's stringent discipline, there are plenty of recordings with everyone from Kubelik to Jochum to Erich Kleiber.

It's not just the perfect orchestra for Mahler, it's magnificent for everything from the whiplash attaca of Beethoven to the bass-heavy weight of Bruckner, to the delicate transparency of Debussy, and captures details from all the orchestral wizards from Tchaikovsky to Ravel to Strauss that no other ensemble finds.

An orchestral sound in itself is a stupid way to judge performances. What matters is the idiomaticity of the sound, but what distinguishes this orchestra is the way it preserves an extremely distinct aesthetic that is utterly appropriate for whatever they play; and in that way, the old Concertgebouw is utterly unique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG2iXFWGvNg