Unusual conducting styles

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  • teamsaint
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 25213

    Unusual conducting styles

    Not sure I can have seen him previously, but I was watching Herreweghe conduct Schumann 2 the other day on a video . A really unusual style, it can’t be that easy to follow from, say, the back of the orchestra. Or perhaps anywhere !



    Anybody care to comment, compare with others ?

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  • Eine Alpensinfonie
    Host
    • Nov 2010
    • 20570

    #2
    Furtwängler was reputedly hard to follow, but he achieved stunning results.

    Comment

    • Pulcinella
      Host
      • Feb 2014
      • 11020

      #3
      How any orchestra copes with flutterfingers Gergiev amazes me. Maybe they all play follow the leader instead.

      Comment

      • Mandryka
        Full Member
        • Feb 2021
        • 1556

        #4
        Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post
        Furtwängler was reputedly hard to follow, but he achieved stunning results.
        Have you seen this (wonderful) video?

        Comment

        • Mandryka
          Full Member
          • Feb 2021
          • 1556

          #5
          Presumably the orchestra at some point knows what they want and the conductor doesn’t really need to do anything. I once saw Rattle conduct a Rheingold with BPO where he just put the baton down for about two or three minutes and listened to them playing. I guess that’s what was going on with Klemperer when he got old and ill, someone I know who saw him said he’d just sit on a chair and shake his hands a bit while the Philharmonia delivered the product.

          Comment

          • RichardB
            Banned
            • Nov 2021
            • 2170

            #6
            Of course most of the real work is done in rehearsal. Orchestral musicians are used to following conductors whose beat looks unclear to outsiders (Herreweghe started as a choir director, of course, and conducts like one), and reserve their disdain for conductors who make mistakes or arbitrarily change tempo between rehearsals and performance.

            Comment

            • smittims
              Full Member
              • Aug 2022
              • 4280

              #7
              I think only a professional orchestral player would give us a truly valuable answer here. From what I could see of him it didn't look too unusual; he seemed to be giving a beat they could follow. How he'd fare in an unfamiliar work where he had to give cue to, say, the percussion or harp at precisely the right moment I don't know.

              Much of what I know about conducting goes back to Boult. So to me there seemed no reason why Herrewege wasn't using a baton,and why he conducted with both hands all the time when one would do, saving the other for special gestures. This is how I've seen Weingartner and other 'old school' conductors do it, e.g. Ferdy Leitner conducting the BBC SO in 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' at the Festival Hall in 1985. Sir Adrian used to say a lot of conductors wasted energy making large arm movements all the time, leaving nothing for moments when they needed special emphasis.

              I think conducting is essentially the art of persuasion. To get the best performance the conductor needs to persuade the players to want to play it the way he wants. As long as he does that the actual means may vary. Werner Tharichen, timpanist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, told how , rehearsing under another conductor, the orchestra suddenly started to pay with more vitality, because Furtwangler had come into the back of the auditorium.

              Comment

              • vinteuil
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 12899

                #8
                .

                ... fatally, Lully

                .

                Comment

                • gradus
                  Full Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 5615

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Mandryka View Post

                  Have you seen this (wonderful) video?

                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYbb5KZYDg
                  A demonic performance gripping and utterly thrilling. I've seen other Furtwangler film excerpts and they all show the same extraordinary response from his orchestras. So much for stick technique.

                  Comment

                  • Dave2002
                    Full Member
                    • Dec 2010
                    • 18032

                    #10
                    That Furtwängler Brahms is very good. For other comparisons of style try Mravinsky and Carlos Kleiber and see if their techniques match up with your impression of the style based on what you hear.

                    Comment

                    • Mandryka
                      Full Member
                      • Feb 2021
                      • 1556

                      #11
                      Furtwangler seems to have unfeasibly long arms which act totally independently of each other.

                      I like the bit where he tells someone to shut up at the start, and the way he stands to rigid attention at the end.

                      Comment

                      • Mandryka
                        Full Member
                        • Feb 2021
                        • 1556

                        #12
                        Here's an example of a rather different conducting style from Furtwangler's

                        #dudamel #beethoven5 #funny #memes #newvision #feeling #symphony #conductor #life #classical #music #philharmonic #orchestra #tennis #volley #magicianGustavo...

                        Comment

                        • gradus
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 5615

                          #13
                          I also enjoy the all-action school of conducting, a prime example is the splendid Dalia Stasevska.

                          Comment

                          • Petrushka
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 12287

                            #14
                            I used to enjoy the 'all action' school of conducting but I now prefer the minimalist approach as exemplified by the aged Haitink or even that of Klemperer where less is more. Too much podium activity can be distracting.
                            "The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink

                            Comment

                            • gradus
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 5615

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Mandryka View Post
                              Presumably the orchestra at some point knows what they want and the conductor doesn’t really need to do anything. I once saw Rattle conduct a Rheingold with BPO where he just put the baton down for about two or three minutes and listened to them playing. I guess that’s what was going on with Klemperer when he got old and ill, someone I know who saw him said he’d just sit on a chair and shake his hands a bit while the Philharmonia delivered the product.
                              That's exactly what he did but he had such a presence that the Philharmonia knew exactly what he wanted irrespective of gestures.
                              Another minimalist was Pierre Monteux who could produce the most wonderful performances from the LSO just by standing on the podium.

                              Comment

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