DAVID PARRY
Conductor
I’ve admired Maria Callas for years. In my 1950s recording of her singing Elvira in Bellini’s I puritani, she has such control and virtuosity, but it is linked to an exceptional sense of drama. Every note has meaning and the way she sings is both incredibly intelligent and passionate. In this recording, there’s this chromatic run which is absolutely extraordinary – you can hardly believe a human being could do it. She’s had such a major impact on how I think about opera.
For me, Martha Argerich is the greatest living solo performer. She’s incapable of playing a boring note and her unbelievable technique is harnessed entirely to musical and emotional ends. Her live recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, conducted by Riccardo Chailly, has a great immediacy to it, a realness that can’t be achieved in the sometimesclinical studio.
Carlos Kleiber was the greatest conductor of our time. He didn’t make a commercial recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, but it was broadcast on radio. When they wanted to put it on disc, the radio company’s tapes of the broadcast had deteriorated too much to be copied, but his son had made a cassette recording of the broadcast, so they remastered the cassette to make this wonderful recording. It’s amazing to listen to. Kleiber has such magnificent sweep to his performances.
I listen to chamber music all the time, and go to a lot of chamber music concerts. Because I’d never perform this sort of music, it is complete pleasure for me. I particularly love Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2, played by the Florestan Trio. What’s so wonderful about Mendelssohn is the balance between very strong classical procedures and heightened emotional expression.
David Parry conducts Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia at Garsington Opera from 26 June