Best Classical Music Conductor

Kitch29 with reference to Reiner and Lewis Layton producing how about one of my very favorite Russian showpieces "Scherazade" re-released on both Chesky records (vinyl) and Classic records on gold CD. This is my very favorite performance of that piece and as an added bonus on the CD is Stravinsky'a "Song of the Nightingale" which is a fabulous recording and performance. One of the best sounding orchestral CD's I currently own.

A number of fine names submitted for best classical conductor. As one or two others have noted, you can't have a legit list without Fritz Reiner, Eugene Ormandy, Georg Szell, etc., on the list. On my personal list I would also include Gerard Schwartz, conductor and music director of the Seattle Symphony.

sugarbrie: thanks for the nod to marin alsop. she is the center of a huge improvement in the quality of the colo symphony orchestra. like zander, she gives a little talk before each piece the symphony performs. after each concert she comes into the audience for informal "chats." BTW, ms. alsop is also the principal conductor of a major orchestra in scotland. can't remember which-- SDCAMPBELL, CAN YOU LEND ME A HAND? hard to argue with any of the other choices made in this delightfully stress-free thread. the best conductor i ever have had the chance to see and hear was eugene ormandy and the phila, symphony. they performed at the maytag auditorium in ames, iowa (iowa state university). that is a great acoustic space, believe it or not. wish we had it in denver, instead of our replica of berlin's theatre-in-the-round.

Fritz Reiner. It didn't hurt that he was well recorded with CSO on RCA during the golden age of stereo.

Ten years ago when I still lived near Boston, the Rhode Island Philharmonic was looking for a new music director. One of my best friends is on their Board of Directors. She invited me as her guest to every one of the "Audition" concerts that year, to get my opinion of the candidates; one being Marin. I had the pleasure of meeting her at the reception after the concert. She was one of the top two picks. The other person was hired, and Asian conductor who is now back in China as music director of the Bejing Symphony. At the time the RI Philharmonic would have been one of two or three orchestras Marin was involved with, and I believe the Board wanted someone who would move to Rhode Island and take part in the community. It not for that; if it was based solely on talent, she would have won. ------- Temirkanov and John Lill were fabulous. Lill is British; was Tchaikovsky competition winner in 1970. He usually stays in Europe, so I was not very familiar with him. His bio said he was recently performing in St. Petersburg, so Yuri must have invited him to come to Baltimore.