Page 46 - BBC Music (January 2020)

FIFTEEN OF NOTE
15 categories of conductor
Studying great maestros past and present, Jeremy Pound gives a
spotters’ guide to character types regularly seen on the podium
ILLUSTRATION: DAVID LYTTLETON
hat is the point of
a conductor?’ is a
question that is often
‘W asked. And a daft
question it is too. While it’s true that most
half-decent orchestras and choirs can get
comfortably from one end of a piece to
the other without someone waving their
arms in front of them, the huge range of
interpretations that have emerged over
the years tells us exactly what a conductor
is there for. And think just how dull the
musical world would be if conductors
didn’t exist. From the showy to the shy,
the fierce to the friendly, the manic to the
mundane, all help to bring their own bit
of colour to the concert hall. Here, in our
brief guide, we present 15 varieties of this
fascinating beast…
Tyrants
1 In the early decades of the 20th
century – often referred to as the ‘golden
age’ of conducting – so revered were the
top maestros that they could act pretty
much how they pleased. And many did
just that. Demanding and stubborn, they
were often dictatorial with their players,
instilling reigns of terror and hiring and
firing at will. The Hungarians George Szell
and Fritz Reiner and Dutchman Willem
Mengelberg were notorious in this respect,
while so ferocious was Artur Rodzinski, a
Pole, that it was widely rumoured that he
conducted with a loaded revolver in his
pocket. Those rumours may well, in fact, 4 Not all conductors are acid-tongued,
have been true. Some said it was just his
GETTY good luck charm; others weren’t so sure.
48 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Firebrands
2 Hell hath no fury like a maestro
miffed. Victor de Sabata and Georg
Solti (‘The Screaming Skull’) regularly
exploded with rage as, infamously, did
Arturo Toscanini. Audio footage exists
of the Italian losing his rag with his
players in rehearsal, but he could be just
as irascible in concert. ‘Toscanini got
furious,’ remembered Palestine Symphony liked to sing along as well – listen carefully
Orchestra violinist Felix Galimir about
one occasion in 1936; ‘while he conducted,
he cursed, he threw dagger-glances at the
poor trumpeter, who was dying with fear;
he continued to curse all the time while we
played the rest of the symphony. Then he
rushed out, kicking over the music stands… Colin Davis and Benjamin Britten.
and didn’t come back on stage again. The
interval lasted an hour and a half.’
Wits and wags
3 Thomas Beecham had a rapier wit,
which he sometimes directed at his own
players. Anyone was a potential target,
though. ‘A musicologist is a man who can
read music but can’t hear it,’ he declared,
while ‘Brass bands are all very well in their
place – outdoors and several miles away.’
Nadia Boulanger’s sense of humour was
gentler. Quizzed about the unusualness
of being a female conductor, she replied:
‘I have been a woman for a little over 50
years, and have got over my astonishment.’
Godfathers
fire-breathing monsters. Some even get on
well with their players. The warm-hearted
Pierre Monteux was always adored, as was
‘glorious’ John Barbirolli, whose 27 years at
the Hallé are fondly remembered not just
for his performances on the stage but also
for his genial company – cigarette in one
hand, Scotch in the other – off it.
Singers
5 Barbirolli didn’t just conduct. He often
to some of his recordings and you’ll hear
his own dulcet tones added to the rich
orchestral texture. He was not alone. With
contributions varying from occasional
grunts to full-blown melodies, other
conductor-crooners include Toscanini,
Dancers
6 Some conductors sing, others like to
dance, using every inch of the podium and
every part of their body to express their
feel for the rhythm. Leonard Bernstein
knew how to move his feet, ditto the hip-
swivelling Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel.
And CBSO audiences will by now be
familiar with the terpsichorean tendencies
of Mirga Grazynite-Tyla. In fact, when
conducting Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto
early in 2019, the Lithuanian even took off
her shoes to aid her on-stage shuffling.
Non-movers
7 In contrast to the dancers are
conductors who move scarcely a muscle –
Richard Strauss, for instance, was almost
a study in stillness in his later years. Fritz
Reiner also kept things to a minimum,