The world of conductors has always attracted a lot of attention. This is understandable;
What kind of incomprehensible world do they inhabit as they stand there in front of the orchestra; sometimes with half-closed eyes, at once in supreme intellectual mastery of music and in the grip of their emotions, sole rulers of a realm where we mortals can only visit or tolerate?
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The truth about conductors is often more prosaic. Hours and years of solitary study lead to a life of living in small, cheap hotel rooms, eternal self-doubt, fear of the next engagement, or even worse: that there will be no next engagement at all.
But what makes a good conductor?
Maybe you can get closer by thinking of conducting as a language. A silent body language that communicates about music. And just like with any other language, it's not enough to master it. You have to have something to say. You have to have something to say. And a knowledge of what you're talking about.
Lifelong learning
My old conducting professor in Vienna said: Conducting consists of two things: One is the act of striking. Anyone can learn that in half an hour. Everything else takes a lifetime to learn.
In doing so, he was guilty of a view of conducting that is at best problematic and at worst completely, completely wrong.
Carl Nielsen had somewhat the same opinion. ”The conducting technique itself is child's play and can be learnt in a few hours,” he wrote in “Living Music”.
This leads him to the following natural consequence:
‘”Therefore, it is a complete fraud when a conductor takes students in the art of conducting, for it is no art, no discipline, no study - which is why any skilful musician can conduct an orchestra at short notice.”.
Nikolai Malko's definition of conducting
Nikolai Malko completely disagreed with this view of the art of conducting.
He advocated a completely different understanding of management than Carl Nielsen. And my old teacher from Vienna.
He believed that technique was just as important for a conductor as for any other musician. Thus he writes:
“You don't get to sit in the orchestra with the violins if you can't play the violin. Not even if you are a good conductor. So why should a musician who doesn't know how to conduct be allowed to stand on the conductor's podium?’
But what can a good conductor offer the music?
Perhaps you can get a little closer by remembering that there haven't always been conductors.
In the Baroque era, music was often led from the harpsichord. We also see this today with Lars Ulrik Mortensen, for example.
Sometimes the beat was struck with a large stick so that you could hear the beat throughout the orchestra. Especially if it was a large orchestra, such as an opera orchestra, that needed to be kept together. We may all know the story of the creator of the French opera Jean Baptiste Lully, who stubbed his toe with the stick and later died of gangrene!
Conductors below the podium
Mozart often conducted his piano concertos from the piano. And in Mozart's time, it was common for the concertmaster to lead the orchestra from the first console.
A good conductor comes with an overall picture of the music to be performed. What is the character of the music? What is the tempo? Balance, an understanding of individual themes and a formal interpretation of the work; what is the overall architecture of each section, each movement, and the symphony or concerto as a whole. You can also work on this without a conductor.
But one of the world's most exciting orchestras at the moment (in my opinion) Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, which works with one of the world's most exciting conductors at the moment (in my opinion) Parvo Järvi, (and who I have had the pleasure of accompanying to a few productions) has a rule of thumb that a production with a conductor takes three days to rehearse. A production without, where the orchestra itself or the concertmaster is in charge, takes 4 days.
The need for a conductor has evolved with the music and the size of the orchestra. A symphony by Mahler or Bruckner simply requires more in terms of shaping the music - the relationship of the individual parts to each other - tempo and character etc. than a symphony by Mozart or Haydn.
The role of the conductor grows out of the concertmaster's violin. He could direct the performance from the concertmaster's seat (you often see the same thing when starting a string quartet) and the bow clearly indicated the tempo for all to see. Sometimes the concertmaster might stand up and use the bow to conduct with, so it was clearer. However baton´en is more practical to conduct with than a violin bow. And so the conductor was born.
Despots and the opposite
Herbert Blomstedt, who has visited the Malko School several times, talks about using his baton as an instrument to play with others. It's a very sympathetic image, just as Herbert Blomstedt IS an immensely likeable person.
Gone is the orchestra despot, the unfettered ruler. What remains is the empathetic and responsive leader.
When you play together, you listen and consider the other musicians.
The time has probably passed from the dictator and it's time for listening and empathetic conductors. Nikolai Malko already thought so, by the way.
But beyond that, what makes a good conductor?
Perhaps a closer look at what makes a good conductor is could.
And let's be clear from the outset that the conductors who take part in a competition like the Malko Competition have an enormous amount of experience, despite their young age.
In addition to well-developed and refined body language and conducting techniques, a good conductor possesses extensive knowledge and insight into music and its various sub-disciplines.
Culture and ideas are an important part of rehearsals
When it comes to body language, directing technique, what we can see When observing the conductor's work, I would refer to Nikolai Malkos: ‘The conductor and his baton’. And concentrate on ‘everything else’.
Basically, it's about being able to analyse the score. It's all in the score, but there are a lot of sub-disciplines:
We're talking about ear training, which is an important subject. Harmonic understanding. Formal insight and analytical knowledge, ability and understanding.
But also a historical knowledge. Knowledge of the time to which each work belongs. The style in which the work was written. The individual composer, the composer's special characteristics and where in the creative work this particular work fits in. Preferably also an understanding of the time in which the composer lived. In other words, an understanding of the history of culture or ideas.
And to top it all off, they have to decide on an interpretation that brings the music to life. An opinion about the music. But preferably an opinion that is based on the analyses and not just plucked out of thin air.
Then they have to concentrate on conducting the orchestra, shaping the music, giving the necessary input. But above all, they need to simultaneously hear what is happening in the orchestra, react to it and consider how what they hear corresponds to what they had imagined at home. And how they can best and quickly get the result they want. Not too many instructions, not too few, but above all relevant and meaningful.
All of this in front of musicians who are typically better instrumentalists than they are, who know the music better than they do and who have infinitely more experience than they do. So it's a cocktail that might make a young person a little nervous. And an older person too, by the way.
Charisma determines whether the conductor convinces the musicians
We've covered various things that are perhaps crucial for a good conductor, but then we haven't even covered the most important, but also most difficult to explain - and that's why I've left it until last.
The conductor's personal charisma. Or willingness. Or the ability to lead or be perceived as a leader. That special charisma that makes musicians willing to set aside their own perception of the music in favour of accepting that of the conductor. This is crucial to the conductor's success on the podium.
There are many things that make a ‘good conductor’. But every conductor is different, which is why it's so exciting to watch them work. Do they have exactly the right combination of knowledge and skills to earn the title of “a good conductor”?
That's what the Malko competition is all about.