Saturday, November 05, 2005

Carlo Maria Giulini - Rest in Peace

This news did not get much play in the U.S., so I missed it.

Carlo Maria Maria Giulini

This man was one of the very great conductors of the 20th Century and a huge influence on me. As child and later as a music student at Illinois Wesleyan University and then Southern Methodist University I studied his recordings to learn how to clearly interpret symphonic music.

As I hadn't heard any news of him for some time, I did an internet search on his name and discovered the above listed article.

This is a man whose musical skills dwarfed virtually all others. It is impossible to say too much about him.

When I was a First Class Petty Officer on USS Florida I had a very hard time establishing myself as a leader in my Division. I ultimately succeeded. During that time I received great solace from his recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (the greatest work of music ever written). I still have memorized every tempo and every balance of every voice, even in the most densely contrapuntal sections of his recording of that very complex work. His Mahler Symphony Number 1 in D Major is my paradigm of how Mahler is to be played. There is too much to write about here. His musical thinking was formative for me.

May he rest in very well deserved peace.

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