Show me an orchestra that likes its conductor and I'll show you a lousy conductor.
Show me an orchestra that likes its conductor and I'll show you a lousy conductor.
Great cataclysmic things can go by and neither the orchestra nor the conductor are under the delusion that whether they make this or that gesture is going to be the deciding factor in how it comes out.
And at the same time, I had my very first concert at the age of 16. I hadn't heard a symphony orchestra before, and I was so deeply impressed I said I have to be a conductor.
In South America, I heard the 8th Symphony of Beethoven. And the young conductor thought, Beethoven must be heroic. But this is piece which shouldn't be heroic. And this was such a misunderstanding, such a deep misunderstanding.
I don't feel that the conductor has real power. The orchestra has the power, and every member of it knows instantaneously if you're just beating time.
So, first you have to be able to play with a metronome. Then you take your freedom. If you play in an orchestra, you got to watch the conductor, he is like a metronome, but it is more difficult because he can change rhythms.
And if you are strong enough, then you can grow as a conductor more and more.
The very first time I was on a car in Atlanta, I saw the conductor - all conductors are white - ask a Negro woman to get up and take a seat farther back in order to make a place for a white man. I have also seen white men requested to leave the Negro section of the car.
A conductor should guide rather than command.
All the conductor has to do is stand back and try not to get in the way. Mozart is doing all the work.
The director is a bit analogous to the conductor of a symphony orchestra. It's a collaborative adventure.
The conductor has the advantage of not seeing the audience.
The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less.
I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.
I always imagined that to bring an orchestra to play together is not enough for a conductor.
The conductor must breathe life into the score. It is you and you alone who must expose it to the understanding, reveal the hidden jewel to the sun at the most flattering angles.
© 2020 Inspirational Stories
© 2020 Inspirational Stories