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Are Orchestral Conductors Superfluous?


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I believe that was Jean-Baptiste Lully who accidentally stabbed himself in the foot. Very unfortunate.

:thanks: A number of years ago when I went to see the film Le roi danse, about Louis XIV, Lully and Molière, I sat in my seat dreading the arrival of this moment. Fortunately, director Gérard Corbiau decided to get it over with right at the beginning and turn the rest of the film into a flashback.

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I believe that was Jean-Baptiste Lully who accidentally stabbed himself in the foot. Very unfortunate.

:thanks: A number of years ago when I went to see the film Le roi danse, about Louis XIV, Lully and Molière, I sat in my seat dreading the arrival of this moment. Fortunately, director Gérard Corbiau decided to get it over with right at the beginning and turn the rest of the film into a flashback.

I had never heard of that movie, volcanohunter. Thanks for mentioning it.

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I thought I'd add some of Anthony Tommasini's review of Gustavo Dudamel's inaugural concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It touches on some of the points discussed above. The concert consisted of the premiere of John Adams' "City Noir" which Tommasini found "riveting" but whose architecture was a bit elusive, and the Mahler First ...
Like Mr. Dudamel’s Beethoven Ninth at the Hollywood Bowl, the Mahler performance was not what you might expect from a young conductor. For all the sheer energy of the music-making, here was a probing, rigorous and richly characterized interpretation, which Mr. Dudamel conducted from memory ...

In the rustic second movement, he captured the music’s beery, galumphing charm, and milked the Viennese lyricism with the panache of a young Bernstein. He and his players uncovered the slightly obsessive quality of the songful slow movement, with its droning repetition of tonic-dominant bass patterns. And he viscerally conveyed the fits and starts of the mercurial finale, building to a brassy climactic fanfare almost scary in its ecstasy.

The musicians were with him all the way, though the playing was rough at times, with patchy string tone and scrappy execution. For all the important accomplishments, of Mr. Dudamel’s predecessor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, he was not the most gifted orchestra builder. The vitality of the playing was always inspiring. No one wants the slick virtuosity that some orchestras are content with. Still, Mr. Dudamel and his players may have work to do.

... Mr. Dudamel returned to the stage again and again. But he never took a solo bow from the podium. Instead, he stood proudly with his players on stage.

This concert will be broadcast in PBS’s Great Performances series on Oct. 21; check local listings.

Los Angeles Glows ...

Thanks for the link to the review, Quiggin. There is indeed a lot in it that applies to this discussion, such as

For all the important accomplishments, of Mr. Dudamel’s predecessor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, he was not the most gifted orchestra builder.
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I agree with the article. The last couple of times that I went to the symphony, the conductor didn't even have music for the last piece. :wink:

Wouldn't this just mean that the conductor has the score memorized? It's not at all unusual in my experience.

Yes, it would. So I guess YOT was joking, with the wink. According to the piece, it's possible or not to do this.

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I agree with the article. The last couple of times that I went to the symphony, the conductor didn't even have music for the last piece. :wink:

Wouldn't this just mean that the conductor has the score memorized? It's not at all unusual in my experience.

Yes, it would. So I guess YOT was joking, with the wink. According to the piece, it's possible or not to do this.

Yes, I was joking. I've been to enough concerts to have seen the difference a conductor can make. All the musicians that I've been around have tremendous respect for the good conductors. One additional very important role that no one has mentioned yet is that the conductor is the one who decides what pieces will be performed. Putting together a coherent, interesting program can't be done by randomly selecting pieces.

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The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields was totally in sync despite the lack of a conductor when I saw them in Boulder, CO last winter. On the other hand, one of our local chamber orchestras plays without a conductor and I've stopped going to their performances because they are so ragged (needless to say, they get great reviews).

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