Effect of seeing/hearing a musician/conductor live

[ardcarp]

I think most agree that seeing the performer/conductor must somehow colour the effect music has on the listener . This has rather important implications in competitions and exams, whatever you think of them. In days of yore, FRCO examiners sat behind a screen and could not see the candidates who were identified by number only. Very fair. The recent threads about Choir of the Year have discussed choral corybantics [is that how you spell it?]...and for the judges to be truly unbiased they should likewise not see the choirs. But alas, it wouldn't make very good TV.

I personally love watching conductors at work, but my impressions range from being amazed at what they achieve to wondering how the heck orchestras follow their beat.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Here's a different slant on the whole issue. When I attended the premiere of the Elgar/Payne Symphony no. 3 at the RFH, the audience contained a number of celebrities from the classical music world. One of these was a well known conductor, who was in the CD shop. He looked at me with utter contempt, though I've never understood why. But it has put me of his interpretations ever since. :(

[johnb]

That reminds me of an LSO concert I attended some years ago. Rostropovich was conducting Shostakovich 8 (I think). The presenter of R3's posh version of Desert Island Discs was in a seat in front of me, in the circle. At the end of the performance he might have brought his hands together once or twice, but no more than that - whilst everyone else in the audience was enthusiastically applauding he preferred to chat to his friends. It really turned me off the man.

[Freddie Campbell]

...Nonetheless every Performer/Conductor NEEDS to connect with his Audience & communicate
with them. If a Performer chooses to "throw" his Music at the Audience this will always end in
failure! And Performing is a TWO WAY process-the Audience should respond & "give back" a
sense of the Performance created in the Auditorium...(Otherwise I feel the original question
can be answered in both ways)

[salymap]

I always loved live concerts and rehearsals were even better for getting an impression of the soloists and conductors of the time. I have seen most of the well known names of today on TV but it's impossible for them to seem as real as the musicians of some years ago.

[StephenO]

Seing Nigel Kennedy perform the Elgar Concerto live in 1988 was a revelation.

Only heard him play him live once but met him twice - once at the Lamb (a pub he used to frequent) and once queuing at a cashpoint in Malvern. He seemed a very pleasant chap behind the stage persona.