THE PRANCING CONDUCTOR

Evening Star, Issue 20778, 28 April 1931, Page 13

THE PRANCING CONDUCTOR

THE OLD STYLE AND THE HEW The ‘ Neues Wiener Journal ’ has published an interview with Richard Strauss on the art of conducting. Is the really good conductor obliged to posq in order to find favour with his audiences P “ The question is of a threefold nature,” said Strauss. “ Are gestures indispensable to the conductor himself. Or for the orchestra? Or for the audience? As far as the conductor is concerned, personally I cannot judge. In the past 1, too, belonged to the; conductors of the grand gesture, but they all find in time that conducting can be done quietlv. Remember Nikisch and, above all. Gustav Mahler, who in his younger days was among the most impetuous of conductors; in their years of maturity both were calmness personified. . “ The audience, however, desires the ‘ acting ’ manner of the conductor. Of the 2,000 persons who usually fill a, concert hall at most 200 merely wish to hear music; the others also wane to see something, and for these - the actor at the conductor’s desk is just the personality desired. Gradually musical education will progress, and. gestures in conducting will be _ looked upon as a matter of secondary import- “ The musicians in the orchestra dislike the conductor who attempts to conjure them by mystic gestures. They wish to develop freely, and only require such signs as give the big outlines of the work in question tand tone down the playing to a unity. If at the last Philnarmonic recital I did not give, a sign for a fortissimo of the orchestra before the allegro movement it ought to bo known that that was a matter settled in advance with the orchestra. Hans Von Bulow arranged a somewhat greater effect. During the introduction he had the halrdarkcncd. and at tlie given moment the: electric light flared up. Nowadays, however, the orchestra does nbt want the gesture of an tmperatorit knows by itself what it wants, and seeks connection only with the conductor’s personality.’