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Building a Classical Music Collection
Introducing the Top 50 Conductors

Introducing the Top 50 Conductors

These are the best 50 conductors since the dawn of recordings.

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John Buxton
Jan 12, 2025
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Building a Classical Music Collection
Introducing the Top 50 Conductors
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“God tells me how the music should sound. But you stand in the way.”

-Arturo Toscanini

Introducing the Top 50 Conductors

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As promised, I am starting a new series for paid subscribers profiling the great musicians that have brought classical music to life during the recording age. I am beginning with the top 50 conductors, and once those are covered, I will move to the top 50 pianists, followed by the top 50 violinists, and finally the top 50 of any other type of instrumental soloist. At the same time, for paid subscribers, I will continue featuring the best new classical albums each year, and that will begin soon with 2025 new releases.

You may ask how I am deciding the best conductors, pianists, violinists, etc., and my methodology will be similar to what I used to determine the top 250 classical works of all-time. I will cross reference the many lists available, online and in print, to come up with the names that appear most frequently. I acknowledge up front that some exceptional musicians may be omitted, and some of those will be highlighted later on separately in my newsletter. You may note that I am excluding conductors that made their reputation before the dawn of the recording age, and those conductors will also be covered in their own series at some point.

It is also important to understand that although the list of the top 50 conductors is indeed a ranking (after all, I am saying these are the 50 best conductors since the dawn of recording), I will not be ranking the conductors within the list. I hope that makes sense. Thus, I will be covering them in alphabetical order rather than in any sort of ranked order. Putting them in any order based on reputation, critical reception, style, record sales, expertise etc. seems too arbitrary.

Therefore, dear readers, I present to you below the list of the top 50 conductors. I will begin profiling them in alphabetical order as follows:

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