Dream of Dobbs then add sugar

On this page I am going to try to put into words one of the most vexing problems that face conductors today and how I respond to it.

As you know I have been around conducting for many years.  I have been witness to huge changes in performance practices.  In addtion to this the world seems to be more populated with authorities (!) in all areas of music making than ever before.

So, what does a conductor need to do in order to accomplish the necessary results in order to get the composer’s sounds and intentions realized by the orchestra in front of which he is standing.

In today’s world orchestras are being exposed to all sorts of ideas about what style the music should be realized in.  Unless you are conducting new repertoire which the orchestra has never played there will be performances with other conductors and other styles in the orchestra’s memory.

So what do you do when conducting a Mozart symphony, for instance.  You will be standing in front of musicians who will vary from those who are addicted to what they consider original performance practices, some even prefer the use of copies of original instruments, to those who feel that the modern symphony orchestra should be explored to fullest possible extent.

As the conductor it is your responsibility to convince the entire orchestra to want to use their individual talents to realize the symphony in the style which you advocate.  How do you proceed to do this?

One of the most important things that goes to making up an orchestra is the essential business of ego.  There is no performer who is worth his salt who doesn’t have a very active and frequently fragile ego.  I feel that it is necessary to try to appeal to the side of their egos which is connected to their technical ability to produce on command anything that their instrument is capable of.  In reality the real ego of the orchestral player is usually most evident in his ability to do wonderfully whatever is asked of him.

So, back to the reason for this page.  My personal approach to all music is to try to determine not only what the composer heard as he wrote it down, but also what effect it had on the audience of the time.  In other words the world who heard Mozart for the first time obviously had heard no music written later and no orchestra of today’s makeup and the many instruments which have changed considerably.  Also music is now for public consumption and often in very large halls rather than for the aristocracy in small (200 or so) capacity halls.  So, the emotional impact of what he wrote was considerable because it was new and often had never been heard before by the members of the audience.  How do we elicit the same emotional response today from the audience?  For me this is almost the single most difficult and at the same time important consideration when deciding on the style and approach for a particular piece of music which I am going to conduct.  What is necessary for the conductor to do in order to honor the composer so that what he wanted his music to express actually takes place?

Tune into the next episode for an exploration of this dilemma.