Some words of wisdom from my esteemed bourgeois Bavarian to young conductors. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do (my favorites are 3-6, what are yours?):
1. Remember that you are making music not to amuse yourself but to delight your audience.
2. You should not perspire when conducting: only the audience should get warm.
3. Conduct Salome and Elektra as if they were by Mendelssohn: Fairy Music.
4. Never look encouragingly at the brass, except with a short glance to give an important cue.
5. But never let the horns and woodwind out of your sight: if you can hear them at all they are still too strong.
6. If you think that the brass is not blowing hard enough, tone it down another shade or two.
7. It is not enough that you yourself should hear every word the soloist sings -- you know it off by heart anyway: the audience must be able to follow without effort. If they do not understand the words they will go to sleep.
8. Always accompany a singer in such a way that he can sing without effort.
9. When you think you have reached the limits of prestissimo, double the pace. (to the conductors of Mozart, however, go twice as slowly.)
10. If you follow these rules carefully you will, with your fine gifts and your great accomplishments, always be the darling of your listeners.
5 comments:
3-6 are pretty brilliant. My favorite right now is 7. It drives me crazy when the singer is singing in English or German and I can't understand the words. I also think it's admitting defeat when the use English supertitles for an English opera. It's like admitting defeat before it's even started.
Frau Magister, I totally agree. Reading all of this Bavarian's opinions about how important it is that the audience understand the singer, really makes me hate supertitles -- it creates a lot of lazy singers and directors (not to mention orchestras).
I like 1,2 and 7 as favorites. Never let 'em see you sweat. Papa
8 is similar to the comment our classical DJ made regarding the recording style of a particular composer. I never really considered the special talent it took to accompany a singer until I heard Der Meister's Mutter accompany him during a sacrament meeting. As she played and he sang, I realized she knew just how to play to help him along so that we focused on his singing, not necessarily her accompaniment (sometimes those can be overpowering). I know some of that came from her being a singer, too. It was amazing. Like the music was floating under his voice, encouraging and lifting it, rather than competing with it.
Hard to choose a favorite among the Brass comments. The Tab needs to look at 7 as that used to be one of their great strengths; now comprehension is thrown out the window. Mutti
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