专辑简介

Dimitri Mitropoulos was one of the great charismatic musicians of the twentieth century. His personality and his gifts produced on the orchestras - offered the listener exceptional artistic results. His phenomenal memory allowed him to direct without a score, even in all his rehearsals. Thanks to his recording legacy, there remains of him some major interpretations of symphonic works, immortalizing collaborations with composers of his time, that make a date for the discophile. He devoted himself entirely to music and his work. His interpretations are musically and dramatically, vivid and incisive. His leadership style was commensurate with his total commitment, physical and full of intense movement. He was driving with his whole body, ultimately reflecting the content of the score. All the internal dynamics of the music he conveyed irresistibly made each gesture an analogy of the text, to which the orchestra gave life. He seemed to give another dimension to the music, a transcendence beyond itself. From the first measure, he formed the air with his bare hands, with frantic gestures and grimaces that translated all his emotions. Dimitri Mitropoulos excelled above all with the music of the late romanticism and works of the 20th century. He began his work with the prestigious New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1949 and 1951 as musical director. However, contrary to Toscanini, who never conducted Rachmaninoff's works, Mitropoulos was a devoted admirer of the Russian composer. He collaborated with Rachmaninoff, who intended to perform his third symphony and, in 1944, on his final days, the creation of his Symphonic Dances. The greek conductor recorded these fascinating, mesmerizingly intense performances live with New York Philharmonic in the 1950s. Only one maestro could seemingly have been more authentic in performing this music - the composer himself, conducting. On November 2, 1960, Dimitri Mitropoulos, at the height of his artistic potential, died of a heart attack during a rehearsal of Gustave Mahler's Third Symphony with the Scala Orchestra of Milan.