Carlos Kleiber

Some conductors leave their personal imprint on whatever they touch. Karajan is always Karajan, whether playing Mozart, Beethoven or Stravinsky. There is always a certain sense of solemnity - of  depth and weight. The only time I saw him conduct - the Berlin Philarmonic - I was struck by the way the bows of the violin section rose and fell exactly in unison. The orchestra behaved like an army, moving inexorably in perfect sync. Another conductor with an inimitable style was Furtwangler. But he was just the opposite of Karajan. For him music was all poetry and lyricism, nuance and fantasy. Carlos Kleiber belongs to a different school. When he conducts he seems to get inside the score. The music sounds as if it was meant to sound exactly the way he plays it. In his hand, everything becomes  fresh and spontaneous. There never is an undue emphasis, all the parts are phrased exactly right, everything becomes clear, sparkling, sharply delineated.