My favorite conductor is Carlos Kleiber. While he died in 2004, he is still my favorite. From my reading I conclude that he was a complex and often a difficult person to deal with, he was also a genius when it came to reproducing music for us. The sounds of Brahms, Beethoven and others were unique. However, he also was a specialist in performing the music of Johann Strauss Jr. He knew how to create the Viennese waltz rhythms in a style that was totally authentic.
This was written about him:
”Kleiber’s charismatic 1981 Vienna recording, a classic of sorts and still sounding exceptionally well, continues to stand its ground. From the beginning, he keeps the speed fairly steady. In the first movement’s coda, he scores over many of his rivals with prominent horns and a particularly exciting conclusion. He opens the second movement in a rather perfunctory manner, but the Vienna cellos make a beautiful sound in the piano dolce second subject. In the Scherzo, Kleiber pulls back for the two accented notes that dominate the first theme, an interesting gesture that lends the music an appropriately swaggering gait. This, arguably, is his finest movement – also from 4’48”, where he keeps the timpani’s triplets crystal-clear, then pushes his horns very much to the fore. Overall, Kleiber in the Fourth is the knight with shining breast-plate, bold, handsome, outgoing, relatively straightforward and (this will court controversy) perhaps just a little superficial.”
Here is Carlos Kleiber conducting the opening of the Brahms Fourth:
