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Shooshie wrote:The conductor — a famous name, but I've forgotten which — stopped him and screamed "Mr. Labate, I'VE GOT THE BATON!" to which Labate replied without skipping a beat, "But I'VE gotta da SOLO!"

It sounds like Erich Leinsdorf.

Bowman

Sorry, tying something into politicians was too close for my comfort. It's an opening to further that discussion.

Shooshie wrote:I've performed in a lot of orchestras, big and small, and while I'm no legendary player, I can sure tell you that timing and feel depends on the conductor. When you play the same work under numerous conductors, it becomes painfully obvious that stiff playing, "out of the pocket," is the fault of the conductor. Oh a player may goof now and then, but as a whole the orchestra responds to the guy up front. If he's stiff and uncomfortable, the playing will sound that way. If he's secure with himself and uninhibited enough to move to the music, the orchestra will follow. The real skill is being "loose" with the flow while also getting the precision spots right. Many conductors are good at one or the other, but not both. The greats, obviously, can do both. If the players are real pros, I think they'll choose a conductor who gets the flow and lets' the players find the beat.

Shooshie

Being you don't have TV (I'm not knocking that here) you didn't see it but I did. The local PBS station used to carry the Boston Pops concerts. It was the first televised concert where John Williams was the conductor. And it was very painfully obvious the orchestra was not paying attention to Mr. Williams except for the couple of pieces of his own music and even then that was off; anyone who's played under a conductor would be able to tell. And when the Pops played pieces from their usual library they completely ignored JW. Their signature piece of Stars and Stripes Forever at the finale the players didn't even bother to look at the conductor - they were off in auto mode.

Poor John Williams looked like he was just up at the lectern waving his arms like he'd just put on too much underarm deodorant

It became obvious as time went on during his tenure that Williams was NOT a good fit for the Boston Pops. I don't think it was a case of they missed Arthur Fiedler as he was long gone by that time but just that it was not a good fit.

James Steele wrote:Sorry, tying something into politicians was too close for my comfort. It's an opening to further that discussion.

Thanks James.