Rafael Kubelík (1914-96)
For me, Rafael Kubelík was a particularly persuasive conductor of this masterwork. From his several recordings of K504 here is his 1981 Bavarian Radio version for CBS/Sony. Ideal pacing and repeat scheme (none until the Finale, although both halves of that movement would have been welcome) and short grace notes in the slow movement.
Col…Quite agree about Kubelik. He served the music, not himself. That’s something he had in common with Vernon Handley, who admired him very much (and Tod was quite sparing in his admiration for colleagues!). He once said to me that you could tell what Kubelik was conducting even with the sound switched off! Hmm….not SO sure about that, but I saw his point. Would be fun to try it out – a more wacky version of Joseph Cooper’s Dummy Keyboard on BBC-2’s much-missed ‘Face The Music’? I’m sure you know Kubelik’s CBS/Sony remakes of the Schumann symphonies. His first set for Deutsche Grammophon is wonderful too, but there’s more charm from the Bavarians. They’re gorgeous discs. Listen to the chuckling dialogue of first and second violins, left and right, at the start of the Spring Symphony’s finale, and I challenge anyone not to smile.
I attended my only Kubelik London concert in two Brahms symphonies. My companion, the master pianist Martino Tirimo learned over and whispered “it is like hearing Brahms conduct his own music”. Never a truer word. I remain a huge fan. His Mahler has been dismissed as “lightweight”. Rubbish. It is the critic who is deficient in spotting a true genius in the interpretation of Mahler. Kubelik was simply for me one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. His Mozart, in which I have multiple versions, might lack modern conventions for repeats but when he did concur I wished the performance would never end. A bit like Beecham really!!
That would be Brahms 3 & 4 with the LSO. In that same visit RK coupled the Prague Symphony with Bruckner 9.