This week sees the 91st birthday of Sir Neville
Marriner. That’s ninety-one, yes you did read it right, and still as active as
ever. In light of this remarkable achievement, I am writing this week about
what makes a good conductor and speculating as to why so many have had such
successful and long careers.
It is no myth that a good conductor can make an unbelievable
difference to an orchestra. But before we delve into specific conductors, I
would like to clarify just what I mean by a “good” conductor. Everyone will
have differing opinions on what makes a good conductor; so much so, that the
attributes a conductor has may make one person see them as a good conductor,
and another as completely awful. Every opinion we have is subjective,
especially on a subject such as music. It still astounds me that two people can
walk into a concert hall to hear a performance and they can walk out with
totally differing opinions of what they just heard. Despite sitting in the same
position, hearing exactly the same performance, they still feel differently about what they just heard.
Anyway, back to what I actually aimed to write this blog
about…
Our own patron, Sir Roger Norrington, celebrated his 81st
birthday a month ago; granted, he is still 10 years younger than Sir Neville,
but it is still an incredible feat. I had a conversation with one of our
players after a rehearsal with Sir Roger in March. I asked her how the
rehearsal went and her reply was just brilliant:
“The rehearsal was fantastic. It amazes me that Roger still
manages to bring something new and fresh to the orchestra whenever he conducts.
I’m not even sure what he does, but he works magic and everyone around him
reacts in such a special way.”
I think this is fascinating to hear; to think that an 81 year
old can still bring a fresh outlook on a piece of music more than 200 years old
is astonishing. He has always been an innovator, thinking outside the box with
his unconventional musical views in the eyes of the western world (interestingly,
he of course would say they were conventional).
With these two legends of the conducting world still going so
strongly at the ages they are, it begs the question – is conducting the
healthiest profession? There have been many greats who have lived well into
their 80s and 90s over the past century; Leopold Stokowski (95), Arturo
Toscanini (90) and Sir Adrian Boult (94) to name but a few. It has been said on numerous occasions that conductors are healthy due to the amount of physical effort involved; conducting Mahler's 8th symphony, for example, means 80 minutes of arm waving, baton flicking and body swaying.Not only do they use physical effort, a lot of mental preparation is required in the lead up to a concert; conductors spend hours searching through scores, meticulously marking in notes. It really is a full body workout that rivals some you would see in a gym...!
To finish though, I would like to focus very briefly on
Leonard Bernstein, who lived until his 72nd year (granted, not quite
the 91 of Sir Neville but still a fair age). If I could go back in time to
watch a concert in which he was conducting, I would without a hesitation. I
find him fascinating. My favourite conducting video of his on youtube, though,
is one where he actually doesn’t conduct with his hands at all…enjoy!
This is actually the last blog I will write for Southern
Sinfonia, as I am off to pastures new. Thank you all for taking the time to
read my musings over the past 8 months; I hope you have enjoyed at least one of
them!
Interesting - but why would an old conductor *not* bring fresh ideas and perspectives?
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