# Article: 8 Emerging Conductors Tell Us What They Actually Do



## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I came across this in my Google feed tonight:






8 emerging conductors tell us what they actually do | CutCommon







www.cutcommonmag.com





One statement I found resonant and that fit with my perception was this:



> I believe that the conductor’s role – particularly when working with professional musicians – is to become a part of the ensemble: unifying the interpretation to serve the music and the composer’s intent.


I like this way of stating it because it fits with my own analogy of conductor to film director - taking a script (usually) from someone else, hiring performers and rehearsing them, and then helping them to deliver performances that all "pull in the same direction."

Another statement that raised alarm bells for me was this:



> When making music, we should always strive to be unique and provide audiences with fresh readings of well-loved classics along with plenty of new music.


Can a performance or an interpretation _always _be unique? That brings to mind unpleasant performances that strive for idiosyncrasy instead of cohesive and convincing musicianship.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

I think the attitude towards music and musicians worded in the first quote is a very healthy one in a moral sense, maybe less so in a practical sense. Being humble and feeling you're one of the guys and gals in the ensemble may work well if you're working with youth or semi-professional orchestras, but I fear you'll be eaten alive when you present yourself like that in front of a well-established orchestra and get yourself tested by them.

The second quote presents the other opposite, "striving to be unique" often results in idiosyncrasies for the sake of themselves. Standing in front of an orchestra with the single goal of making them play differently than they do for other people shows a lack of trust in the abilities (not only technical but also interpretative) of the musicians. And as an inexperienced know-it-all, you will be eaten alive as well, if the musicians feel you're asking them to do things that feel unnatural to them. In the case of the "well-loved classics", a conductor should never forget that the orchestra knows the music better than himself!

So maybe a middle of the road attitude between these extremes will work best?



> If we start from the philosophy that we can treat all music as chamber music, which I think is a healthy thing to do, then perhaps a conductor’s main role is to promote, inform, and highlight the relationships that already exist quite naturally between the music, musicians and, eventually, the listener. You do this through the scope of the music itself.


Spotted the micromanager!
Seriously, orchestral music is not chamber music, and I understand what he's trying to say, but so often this ideal of maximum transparancy and focus on detail results in anemic performances where everyone's listening to everyone else but forgets (and isn't being stimulated to) play without inhibitions.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Regarding the quote about becoming part of the ensemble ... I am reminded of a video talk by Simon Rattle around the time that he was ending his tenure with the BPO, essentially what he said is that as much as he might feel differently, the conductor is not a member of the ensemble and never will be. To put it differently, yes you have to work cooperatively with them to achieve results but basically there is a significant power differential even though they may have voted for you as chief coductor.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

For decades, the members of the London symphony orchestra had a reputation of being a. rowdy group of. musicians who as the saying goes ,would "eat conductors live " at. rehearsals, especially up and coming young ones . But in the 1970s, when the tough, demanding veteran Karl Bohm ( 1894-1981) came to guest conduct he would not take any nonsense form any orchestra and showed them he really knew what he was doing , so he and the orchestra developed a. kind of symbiotic relationship , and he became a regular with the orchestra late in his long and distinguished career, and they recorded the last three Tchaikovsky symphonies , one. digitally, I forget which one . Imagine - a digital recording of a Tchaikovsky symphony conducted by a. maestro who had been born only one year after the death of this composer, who was born in 1840 !


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

MatthewWeflen said:


> I came across this in my Google feed tonight:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Another cohesive, convincing (someone's opinion), but do we want yet another one?, along with all the others? How many with the same conventional attitude (and fears) do we want? 

We don't want new exciting, eccentric, controversial interpretations? I don't understand this. 

If you're a completist and you only want reference recordings then I can understand it.


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## Denerah Bathory (6 mo ago)

MatthewWeflen said:


> I came across this in my Google feed tonight:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


To serve the music and the COMPOSER'S intent--now that is what matters above all. If only opera directors did the same. If it ain't in the libretto, it doesn't belong. If it's 19th century Paris, it's 19th century Paris. Valkyries have winged helmets and shields, etc.

A director is basically paid to contract carpenters and tailors to replicate an opera over and over again, and once I write an opera and have copyright thereto I'll make sure that all productions are directed and approved by myself to express the operas vision.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

superhorn said:


> For decades, the members of the London symphony orchestra had a reputation of being a. rowdy group of. musicians who as the saying goes ,would "eat conductors live " at. rehearsals, especially up and coming young ones . But in the 1970s, when the tough, demanding veteran Karl Bohm ( 1894-1981) came to guest conduct he would not take any nonsense form any orchestra and showed them he really knew what he was doing , so he and the orchestra developed a. kind of symbiotic relationship , and he became a regular with the orchestra late in his long and distinguished career, and they recorded the last three Tchaikovsky symphonies , one. digitally, I forget which one . Imagine - a digital recording of a Tchaikovsky symphony conducted by a. maestro who had been born only one year after the death of this composer, who was born in 1840 !


I have Boehm's Tchaikovsky 5. Too stodgy.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Luchesi said:


> Another cohesive, convincing (someone's opinion), but do we want yet another one?, along with all the others? How many with the same conventional attitude (and fears) do we want?
> 
> We don't want new exciting, eccentric, controversial interpretations? I don't understand this.
> 
> If you're a completist and you only want reference recordings then I can understand it.


Hurwitz spoke about this. He said that decades ago, conductors spent most of their time working with their orchestra and working with it to produce a personal sound. Now, conductors spend a lot of time travelling and guest conducting, so they don't spend ages working with one orchestra. Orchestral players are more talented at playing than today's conductors are talented at conducting, and are used to playing the warhorses. He alleges that guest conductors tell the orchestra to practice a few idiosyncratic passages and BOOM! Personal sound even if that sound doesn't enhance the music.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Luchesi said:


> Another cohesive, convincing (someone's opinion), but do we want yet another one?, along with all the others? How many with the same conventional attitude (and fears) do we want?
> 
> We don't want new exciting, eccentric, controversial interpretations? I don't understand this.
> 
> If you're a completist and you only want reference recordings then I can understand it.


"Exciting," eccentric, controversial interpretation:





In a word, no. Eccentricity for its own sake is not valuable. Gardiner's Beethoven, for instance, is not intentionally eccentric - it follows an academically sound theory of period instrumentation and tempo. It stands alongside slower, "big band" Beethoven as a completely convincing rendition. I am certain Gardiner has never said "I did it this way because it's the conductor's job to be 'unique.'"


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

MatthewWeflen said:


> "Exciting," eccentric, controversial interpretation:


Wim would like that


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

MatthewWeflen said:


> "Exciting," eccentric, controversial interpretation:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well, on the one hand even I could probably play the contrabassoon part at these s-l-o-w tempos. But I'd probably fall asleep long before then. The coda is just wretched.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

mbhaub said:


> Well, on the one hand even I could probably play the contrabassoon part at these s-l-o-w tempos. But I'd probably fall asleep long before then. The coda is just wretched.


The second movement makes me want to arrest the conductor. And those poor singers should sue.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

^^That was my reaction on attempting to watch Celi's Bruckner 7 with the Berlin PO ... I made it about 5 minutes into the slooooooow movement (the 2nd, slower than slow movement) before turning it off in disgust.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Can a performance or an interpretation _always _be unique? That brings to mind unpleasant performances that strive for idiosyncrasy instead of cohesive and convincing musicianship.


No, it can't, nor should it. On the other hand, if a performance offers nothing but an exact retread of some earlier interpretation, it might seem difficult to justify a newer. Up and coming conductors don't have it easy in this regard. It's not as if the younger generation must carry the baton from the older, because the older reference recordings will be around forever.

Perhaps at some point, Beethoven's 5th will stop being performed and recorded because it doesn't need to be any longer?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Forster said:


> Perhaps at some point, Beethoven's 5th will stop being performed and recorded because it doesn't need to be any longer?


Maybe in the far off future, hundreds of years from now that could happen. Assuming that the orchestra even still exists. There are many works that likely don't ever need to be recorded again, unless some stunning, new technology comes along that replicates at home exactly what you would hear in a good live performance. (I held out hope for SACD and Blu-Ray, but neither has lived up to the promise.)

Classical music is in a way like a lab experiment; it can be replicated. But with each performance there are always minor differences that make live performances worthwhile. Too many young conductors think they have to do something really radical to get attention and break the mould from prior generations. Big mistake. There are some younger conductors who seem to relish looking into the unusual and rarer repertoire so that they won't be constantly compared to maestros of old.


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