About The Artist
Sergiu Celibidache (1912 – 1996) was a Romanian conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher. Educated in his native Romania, and later in Paris and Berlin, Celibidache's career in music spanned over five decades, including tenures as principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Sicilian Symphony Orchestra and several other European orchestras. Later in life, he taught at Mainz University in Germany and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Celibidache frequently refused to release his performances on commercial recordings during his lifetime, claiming that a listener could not have a "transcendental experience" outside the concert hall. Many of the recordings of his performances were released posthumously. He has nonetheless earned international acclaim for his interpretations of the classical repertoire and was known for a spirited performance style informed by his study and experiences in Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. (Source: Wikipedia)
The quotations shown below are comments on the Internet platform "Facebook" and belong to two short YouTube videos you can watch below. In one of the video there was one quote of the musician featured:
Sergiu Celibidache über Herbert von Karajan:
Sergiu Celibidache about Herbert von Karajan:
"I don't appreciate everything he's done. He had too much ego, which clouded his occasional freedom of thought. When a person is so motivated, I don't think je was aböe to slip into Bruckner's skin. The condition for Bruckner is egolessness. You just have to let it happen." (Sergiu Celibidache)
Kommentare auf Facebook über Sergiu Celibiache, April 2021
Bild: abfotografiert aus Fotoband
"Sergiu Celibidache" / Gustav Lübbe Verlag, 1992 Bergisch Gladbach
Bild: abfotografiert aus Fotoband
"Sergiu Celibidache" / Gustav Lübbe Verlag, 1992 Bergisch Gladbach
Group: Anton Bruckner Society
"His writings about music are references. As conductor he is another galaxy."
"Meglio se vi date una bella pulita alle orecchie . Karajan pur essendo un dei più grandi direttori del secolo scorso con Bruckner aveva una rancore personale , non sapeva dirigerlo e non era il solo perché anche Furtwangler non ci levava le mai gambe . Lo stesso capitava a Celibidache con Beethoven e Haydn , pessime esecuzioni ma lui testardo insisteva sempre senza capire che non faceva per lui."
"Although his tempi are very slow, which I like in Bruckner, he definitely felt the music he conducted deeply."
"Personally I find him overrated. Most of the conductors he talked badly about was much better. And that arrogant tone of his is quite discusting."
"Did you further know that Celibidache detested recordings. To him, attending a concert was the only proper listening experience."
"Whenever he opens his mouth he talks utter nonsense"
"I love his work with Bruckner, except for the exceptionally slow tempi for the 7th in his later recordings. It seems to work for 8 and 9, though."
"Yes. I can't cope with the Munich or Berlin 7th but the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th I love (can't remember the 9th!)"
"So your point is that Celi became famous because he conducted Bruckner's music? His repertoire was not wide by choice, but it definitely included works by other composers."
"His writings about music are references. As conductor he is another galaxy."
Group: Directors Orchestra Historical Before 1980 Debut
"Celibidache was envy of Karajan getting the Berlin PO . The truth is that both conductors were giant Brucknerians- Celi especially in his EMI recordings of nos 4-6, and Karajan in the late VPO recordings of nos. 7 and 8."
"So damn unbearable and presumptuous..."
"Look who is talking about ego..."
"Karajan never spoked against celibidache... i find this in a certain way superflous"
"Look who is talking about ego..."
"Karajan never spoked against celibidache... i find this in a certain way superflous"
"Pot meet kettle."
"Meglio se vi date una bella pulita alle orecchie . Karajan pur essendo un dei più grandi direttori del secolo scorso con Bruckner aveva una rancore personale , non sapeva dirigerlo e non era il solo perché anche Furtwangler non ci levava le mai gambe . Lo stesso capitava a Celibidache con Beethoven e Haydn , pessime esecuzioni ma lui testardo insisteva sempre senza capire che non faceva per lui."
"Ihr würdet euch besser die Ohren sauber machen. Karajan war zwar einer der größten Directors des letzten Jahrhunderts mit Bruckner, hatte einen persönlichen Groll, konnte ihn nicht leiten und war nicht der einzige, weil auch Furtwangler uns niemals die Beine abbrach. Dasselbe passierte Celibidache mit Beethoven und Haydn, schlechte Hinrichtungen, aber er sturrömte immer darauf, ohne zu verstehen, dass er nichts für ihn getan hat."
"Siccome dopo avermi insultato ha cancellato il messaggio (o forse mi ha solo bloccato) vi lascio lo screenshot che ho fatto appena in tempo a scattare... un gentiluomo"
"There was never any conductor who had a more overblown and ridiculous ego than celibidache. Whenever he opens his mouth he talks utter nonsense. Embarrassing for a musician of his statue. A case for a psychiatrist- probably incurable."
"Siccome dopo avermi insultato ha cancellato il messaggio (o forse mi ha solo bloccato) vi lascio lo screenshot che ho fatto appena in tempo a scattare... un gentiluomo"
"There was never any conductor who had a more overblown and ridiculous ego than celibidache. Whenever he opens his mouth he talks utter nonsense. Embarrassing for a musician of his statue. A case for a psychiatrist- probably incurable."
"Ego is a complicated word, too easily reduced to something simplistic. Anyone who knew Celibidache knows that he had full awareness of his own capacities, of his own unique musical worth, and didn't hide it. However, at the same time, he did not confuse this with a sense of his own greatness in any other area. That's a difference he recognized in certain others -- above all, Karajan. It's also what made him able to withdraw or compress his self-fullness when conducting music and, as he said, just let it happen, creating a context within which the players could make the music."
"For perspective it is well to remember that while Celibadache was a mature conductor during the 1940s, conducting hundreds of concerts with the Berlin PHil, Karajan was just coming along and in the same period did only a small handful of concerts with the Berlin Phil. That, no doubt, was when Celibidache's views wee formed. After the war I doubt if he ever heard a Karajan concert."
"For perspective it is well to remember that while Celibadache was a mature conductor during the 1940s, conducting hundreds of concerts with the Berlin PHil, Karajan was just coming along and in the same period did only a small handful of concerts with the Berlin Phil. That, no doubt, was when Celibidache's views wee formed. After the war I doubt if he ever heard a Karajan concert."
"Conductors and other musicians who talk down colleagues only diminish their own stature. The insecure Furtwangler wrote a good amount of adverse criticism regarding Toscanini's way with certain interpretive details, most noteworthy of Beethoven's ninth. Other examples may be found in a small, and I am certain, selected excerpts of his musical musings."
"Celibidache, he never forgave the Berlin Philharmonic for not having chosen him as principal conductor, and he never forgave Karajan, he became a bitter and spiteful man"
"Celibidache, he never forgave the Berlin Philharmonic for not having chosen him as principal conductor, and he never forgave Karajan, he became a bitter and spiteful man"
"Chelibidace did most of his career in not such top orchestras. Top orchestras were afraid to make him Musical director. Only late in life he turned the Munich PO into a top orchestra. I was lucky to hear a great concert of him in his last visit to Israel. But his ego probably limited his career"
"The funny thing most people here probably aren't aware of since they have heard neither Celibidache nor Karajan live is that the kind of sound both conductors got from their orchestras was actually very similar, the same kind of luminous, round and full, but also surprisingly transparent sound. The kind of sound that can be produced when the conductors give their musicians just enough room to fully develop their sound, and through meticulous rehearsing and balancing. Older musicians and concert goers who had heard Furtwängler live and/or played under him told me that that was essentially the kind of sound he got from orchestras, too. The only significant difference really was that Celibidache rarely allowed the brass to play "brassy loud" whereas with Karajan, the dynamic range was huge. Both were able to get marvelous pianissimi even from very large orchestras though. Celibidache really only adopted those super slow tempi (fairly late in life) because that allowed him to set himself off more clearly from Karajan and other conductors. There were no musical or acoustical reasons for that. Despite all his babbling about "epiphenomena" and how the substance of the music and the acoustics of the room should determine the "right" tempi, he conducted everything just as slowly in the Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich, even though that has bone-dry acoustics, as in other halls (like the Philharmonie in Berlin) with much more lively acoustics."
"How can anybody listen to Celibidache's words and not think that this is just the most monstrously egotistical maniac? 6,000 pupils and not a nice thing to say about any of them? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkMEK7u0fAI"
"Just nonsense."
"I once saw a video where he ridiculed one of my teachers, Georges Tzipine's rehearsal techniques. Totally insufferable egotist!"
"According to him, all great conductors were bad. Karajan, Böhm, Furtwängler, Toscanini, Bernstein...he had something bad to say about all of them. Embarrassing and pathetic, really https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ep7gMXbIR4"
"Amertume de n' être pas arrivé au même niveau qu ' eux !"
"The ego of Celibidache was humongous too"
"Well-said, with the exception of slow tempi late in life : I do not think it had anything to do with setting himself apart from Karajan - he just wanted to hear individual parts, details in the scores, and his readings are "ein Muster von Klarheit" for lack of a similar English term ! Granted, sometimes he goes a little overboard, like the overly broad soaring theme in Tchajkovsky's Romeo and Juliet - recently heard - that is otherwise stellar : he searches, and mostly finds, just the right sonorities ! And in Bruckner - well, the twain met !"
"In 1968 when Maazel and I were both young and he was advising me on the radio orchestra scene in Europe, he made a very strong recommendation that Celibidache was the most important person in Europe to study with."
"You can see which musicians he admire publicly and who he did not , conductors , instrumentalists and singers. Composers too."
"Conductors , musicians, composers and singers must be well paid"
"I once saw a video where he ridiculed one of my teachers, Georges Tzipine's rehearsal techniques. Totally insufferable egotist!"
"According to him, all great conductors were bad. Karajan, Böhm, Furtwängler, Toscanini, Bernstein...he had something bad to say about all of them. Embarrassing and pathetic, really https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ep7gMXbIR4"
"Amertume de n' être pas arrivé au même niveau qu ' eux !"
"The ego of Celibidache was humongous too"
"Well-said, with the exception of slow tempi late in life : I do not think it had anything to do with setting himself apart from Karajan - he just wanted to hear individual parts, details in the scores, and his readings are "ein Muster von Klarheit" for lack of a similar English term ! Granted, sometimes he goes a little overboard, like the overly broad soaring theme in Tchajkovsky's Romeo and Juliet - recently heard - that is otherwise stellar : he searches, and mostly finds, just the right sonorities ! And in Bruckner - well, the twain met !"
"In 1968 when Maazel and I were both young and he was advising me on the radio orchestra scene in Europe, he made a very strong recommendation that Celibidache was the most important person in Europe to study with."
"Besides his interviews talking negatively about other conductors , I saw almost any video and book about Celibidache , he spoke about Furtwanglers as the genious one !!!! The understanding of how sound must be free and broad frasing. Celibidache has clearly like Furtwangler did in his essays how badly would be the recording industry and the industralization of global classical music to music historically , and I think they were not wrong."
"You can see many opera singers from previous generations complaint that there are no well formed conductors now for Opera . I think they are complaining right. Who cares about the degradation of art ? Groups just want to make mountains of money and don’t care about how it is done at the individual level , specially with singers . We are living in an era that don’t care in comparison with 19 th century and beginning of 20 th."
"You can see which musicians he admire publicly and who he did not , conductors , instrumentalists and singers. Composers too."
"Other thing that Celibidache rejected and won the hate of the music world was rehearsals. you can see in the interview in London he speaks openly about the orchestras that just perform reading the score the same day of the performance .... that industrialization of money making is not really good for the arts for sure. No doubt why there are no more Richter , Arrau , Caruso , Callas , Nilson , Beethoven and Wagners , music is not about making money , sorry."
"But making money was not a thing which Celibidache rejected either, Claudio. He was very lavishly remunerated in Munich, often with suitcases full of cash. And even though he proclaimed not to like recordings, he still insisted on juicy royalties for TV and radio broadcasts of his concerts..."
" I think Celibidache is right on the Ego effect in music , complex theme but I heard it before by other musicians. Some great conductors are amazing but lack some inner sense on the meaning of the whole thing , strangely said but mistically real"
"Not rehearsing can make a disaster on how orchestras play the repertoire , specially the ones that never learn a piece by memory."
"Not rehearsing can make a disaster on how orchestras play the repertoire , specially the ones that never learn a piece by memory."
"Some humans do things running behind the power that a lot of money can bring . But Beethoven did not composed music dreaming to have a full bank of gold and power. His power was to be a creator. It is sad when a career is fuel by the desire of money but not the power of Art creation.
Some don’t care to destroy anything for money . And we see that in the arts a lot today."
"If creators would think about “ the realistic ideas “ we would not have Wagner’s Ring . With realistic ideas we would not have music at all .. maybe that is why Freud hated music .... intellectuals , pragmatic , and weak cultures can’t understand the reason why some humans go against logical activities and they try to put sounds they hear into paper to comunicate weird things to others .... how they dare to loose time and not being enslaving some lands and beings in the world ....."
"If creators would think about “ the realistic ideas “ we would not have Wagner’s Ring . With realistic ideas we would not have music at all .. maybe that is why Freud hated music .... intellectuals , pragmatic , and weak cultures can’t understand the reason why some humans go against logical activities and they try to put sounds they hear into paper to comunicate weird things to others .... how they dare to loose time and not being enslaving some lands and beings in the world ....."
"Not really a fraud, but not really a conductor, certainly not a good one in my opinion. His Bruckner is not recognizable as Bruckner to me. I am happy I never heard his Wagner or Mahler."
"How even conductors would consider him a guru of conducting and people just throw he was almost fraud ? Celibidache Wagner is terrific , as Mozart is , he used sound school as Furtwangler did as Walter did , as Klemperer did. Walter and Riccardo Chailly play Mahler as he composed it. He took his songs and created a musical fantasy on his songs themes and he called it Symphonies. Symphonies must keep a specific structure if not you can call them musical fantasy."
"Point taken Claudio. I’m not into Celi’s fantasies. But I know a lot of smart people like him."
"He was definitely a very good conductor because he was very good at achieving the results he wanted to achieve. And it was quite fascinating to listen to those results, even though many of the available recordings do not give you a good idea how fabulous that sounded in real life. Whether he used his skills in a way which really served the music he conducted in the best ways is a different question, and a rather tricky one. I tried to bring some balance to the discussion with my comments further up."
"Ich bin schon lange ein Verehrer von Celibidache (der meistens sehr langsame Tempi wählte, wodurch er aber - entgegen der heute oft üblichen verhetzten Tempi - die Schönheit der Musik erst richtig zur Geltung kam). Musik kann auf vielerlei Arten definiert werden: Klang, Schwingung, Symphonie... ich denke, dass ihr emotionaler Einfluss wohltuend für uns Menschen ist."
"Ich bin schon lange ein Verehrer von Celibidache (der meistens sehr langsame Tempi wählte, wodurch er aber - entgegen der heute oft üblichen verhetzten Tempi - die Schönheit der Musik erst richtig zur Geltung kam). Musik kann auf vielerlei Arten definiert werden: Klang, Schwingung, Symphonie... ich denke, dass ihr emotionaler Einfluss wohltuend für uns Menschen ist."
"Congratulations on showing one of the most important chief musicians in the world of old-fashioned! A chief musician who gave important interpretations under his direction and gave a different sound to the Berlin symphony far from other usual ones ...!"
"Celibidache talking about other people's ego, is an oxymoron. His was a case of pathological spitefulness, bitterness, jealousy one could say for Karajan and other great conductors. He had a bad thing to say for most of them."
"Celibidache is a fine conductor but von Karajan is out of his league, Karajan’s Bruckner has a class of its own, Karajan’s fame was always a matter that arose envy from others"
"Big ego? The great HVK? Or insert any other conductor. Even if its false, conductors are stereotyped as egoist. But these 2 are the real thing!"
"Ich glaube, das spricht ein grundsätzliches Thema an, nämlich dass Karajan von vielen - in dem Fall auch von Celi - verkannt wurde. Selbstverständlich hatte Karajan etwas egobetontes in seinem Auftreten, aber ich persönlich habe den Eindruck, dass Karajan IMMER ganz in die Musik eintauchte und auch sein Ego in dem Augenblick hinter sich ließ, wenn er musizierte. Auch er ließ dann die Musik komplett selbst geschehen und das mit einer unnachahmlichen Tiefe. Im Grunde seines Herzens war er ein ganz bescheidener Mensch, der aber genial begabt war und darüber hinaus extrem fleißig."
Other Groups:
"Heartwarming when some of our most talented people are mentioned."
Other Groups:
"Heartwarming when some of our most talented people are mentioned."
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