Best Classical Music Conductor

Ben Zander is a Cellist by training. As a boy in Britain he studied with Benjamin Britten. Ben's students include Yo Yo Ma.

Thanks; I have that Telarc disc with his explanation--simply terrific. Also have his Beethoven 5th and 7th, which reflect unusual and compelling tempi which he believes were Beethoven's intent. I'm going to check out his other work. Interesting about him being a cellist--with my local orchestra, the New Jersey SO, I have felt that the best conductors for the orchestra, both when we were looking for a replacement for Hugh Wolff (Joseph Silverstein and the current music director and principal conductor, Zdenek Maacal) and now as guest conductors all happen to be string players. I wonder if anyone else shares that view, or if it was more a coincidence?

if i'm not mistaken, ben zander was recently featured on 60 minutes. he's the one who makes big bucks as a corporate motivational speaker, right? (BTW, i find nothing wrong with that, especially since he uses music as his grand metaphor.)

Why is there no such thing as history anymore? No one mentioned Reiner or Szell? Cleveland is cleveland but whenever the orchestra went to New York, the critics raved like Bernstein played for the Mets. And Reiner, no one handled soloists as well except perhaps Toscanini and he was a martinet. Columbia made horrible recordings of the Cleveland but the best RCA's produced by the legendary Lewis Layton were done with Reiner. And then you have Solti, and Haitink with the Concertgebouw. Sir Charles Beecham was no slouch, either (actually, you're a great slouch, judge).

Carlos Klieber has very few recordings, but the ones in the catalog are extremely good. Dutoit is probably the best in French and ballet music today, curiously he avoids the main symphonic repertoire. Karajan was extemely verseatile, massive body of work including opera, he has 3 or 4 versions of most works recorded, hard to beat when you look at his entire legacy.