Conducting Business

Impressions Of Sergei Koussevitsky, Conducting The Boston Symphony Orchestra,by Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev

Being a conductor has got to be one of the strangest of jobs! In the cascade of music that the audience comes to hear, the conductor makes not one sound; he touches no instrument. The audience doesn’t even witness the emotions of the maestro/maestra at work and indeed, some gestures may even be completely obscured.

Tom Service of The Guardian has written a soon to be published book on some of the greatest conductors and the orchestras with which they worked. This is his preview of his book:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jun/01/mystery-maestros-what-are-conductors-for

Tom Service’s Music as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors and Their Orchestras is published by Faber on 7 June (£18.99).

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