Friday, February 8, 2013

OvergrownPath.com on Dean Dixon: 'Mediocre orchestras played divinely for him'


Maestro Dean Dixon


On An Overgrown Path
Rewarding to see a Twitter conversation about Dean Dixon sparked by a thrift shop discovery of him conducting Walter Piston’s Second Symphony on a vinyl LP. Snatches from the conversation include “Dean Dixon was one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors…Pure genius” – “I can’t think of a single inferior Dixon recording. And mediocre orchestras played divinely for him” – “He was outstanding in American music and classical period repertory (Haydn, Weber and Beethoven)”. 

“And mediocre orchestras played divinely for him”… how many of today’s lavishly rewarded maestros can that be said for? Coming to that would a thoroughly modern maestro’s management ever put him in front of anything other than an A list orchestra? That is Dean Dixon in the photo above; more on the maestro who mediocre orchestras played divinely for in Dean Dixon – I owe him a huge debt

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