Performing/Technical
- Rehearsal management
- Verdi’s ^
marking in Otello.
- Batons: wood or
synthetic?
- Batons: size.
- Meter changes in Rite
of Spring.
- Orchestras’ playing behind
the beat.
- Formal education
versus apprenticeship.
- What suggestions
do you have for starting out, especially how to run the
first rehearsal and how to study the score?
- Is the piano indispensable
for a conductor?
- Are there times when it is actually wrong
to follow the orchestra conductor?
- All French program.
- About Italian notation
and errata.
- When a soloist has a complicated passage and orchestra part
is fairly simple (as, in the third movement of the Sibelius
Violin Concerto), do you follow
or conduct?
- How do you keep people from applauding
inappropriately?
- I was wondering what advice you could offer to me to help
me practice score reading
at the piano.
- Preparing for conducting
test where the exercise is to rehearse and make corrections
with an orchestra.
- Why is it that conducting
auditions always require playing Bach chorales (four staves)
at the keyboard?
- How do you interpret Tchaikowksy’s indication of ffffff?
- What repertory [...]
for beginning conductors (conducting small ensembles)?
- Is there any source for scores
adapted to the piano?
- Can you comment on your use of attacca
between movements?
- Can you recommend a good recording
of the Jupiter Symphony?
- What should I look for in a graduate
program in conducting? Also, what tips can you give on getting
more exposure to orchestral conducting?
- Is Brahms
traditionally played slower than it should be?
- What is your perspective on left-handed
conducting.
- When writing music, how does one choose between the time
signatures of 4/4, 2/4, or 2/2? It seems that it’s
more than a matter of speed.
- What is the conductor’s role
in the music making?
- Interpreting markings in Mozart.
- Conductor training: scores
or gestures?
- Could you recommend some books on score reading? Any tips
on how to improve
one's ability to read scores?
- I am interested in your reaction to using a synthesizer
in composing for acoustic instruments.
- Repertory for student
orchestras.
- I was wondering if you have any hints
on communicating with an orchestra.
- What things should an aspiring conductor be working on to
help prepare for
graduate school?
- Tempo in Beethoven’s
Sixth Symphony (The Pastorale).
- Wind ensemble
“movement.”
- What are the most important questions that must be resolved
prior to your first rehearsal?
- Auditions, managers, and the Internet.
- Evaluating
conductors.
- Prelude to Madame
Butterfly, Act 2, Scene 2.
- Do you suggest any particular aria
substitution for Rosina’s lesson scene (Barbiere)?
- At the beginning of Elektra’s first aria, Strauss has the
violins re-tune
very briefly. How does this work?
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Other
- Conducting an inborn
talent or acquired skill?
- Comments on Bellini’s
I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (The Capulets & the Montagues),
with audio illustration.
- Does the conductor’s baton
go up or down on the beat?
- Where is the music?
- Tastes and preferences.
- Comments on the new Mozart
CD (audio sample).
- About composers
conducting their own works.
- Don’t you think that contemporary conductors and orchestras
should incorporate more
20th century music in their repertoires (including recent
compositions)?
- Comments on the new Brahms
CD (audio sample).
- Is it more difficult to do two
different operas in the same evening, like Cavalleria
and Pagliacci, than to do one?
- What is your typical day
like?
- Announcement: Addition of RealAudio®
to the site.
- Does a concerto soloist have the option to change the tempo
as desired?
- I would like to know more about “absolute
pitch.”
- About decision-making regarding
cuts, repeats, and optional notes.
- Comments on new recording (audio sample), specifically Mendelssohn’s
early violin concerto.
- When I hear a piece taken at a tempo
very different from any I’ve ever heard, I’m inclined to call
it “wrong” while my friend defends a musician’s right to his
or her interpretation. What is your opinion?
- Comic and playful
music versus “serious" music.
- Comments on new Beethoven recording, specifically the Eroica
(audio sample).
- What is music?
- Can you comment on working with and without a prompter?
- Do you work with original
instruments? How much consideration do you give to creating
historically authentic performances?
- I hear reference to “tenor clef” and other clefs (usually
with a groan). Can you explain what these other clefs
are?
- What was the single greatest influence
on your music-making?
- About ornamentation
and decoration (with illustrative audio files).
- When an orchestra tours with a program it will repeat at
each venue, how difficult is it to adjust
the playing to the acoustics?
- What rules of thumb do you follow regarding dynamics
and balance?
- Do you object to surtitles?
- Overview of conducting
technique (use of baton, beating patterns, gestures, etc.).
- When is a transposition
acceptable, and when is it not?
- Do you have any rules of thumb you follow with regard to
repeats and cuts?
Has performance practice gone “too far” in insisting on repeats
or opening cuts?
- How do you arrive at an interpretation?
- Toscanini and the problem of the Act 1 finale of The Barber
of Seville (with illustrative audio files).
- How do you go about planning
symphonic programs?
- In a house where the orchestra pit
will not accomodate the forces prescribed by the composer,
how are the “pruning” decisions made?
- What is the most difficult
score you have ever had to conduct?
- About computer
programs.
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