Before we move on to look at the individual instruments of the orchestra, let’s pause to examine the man or woman who makes absolutely no noise in an orchestral concert – but who demands the attention of both the audience and the players.
Conductors are the gods and goddesses of the classical music world. At the highest levels, they command hefty fees (unlike the rank-and-file performers they conduct) and can tell you what they will be doing sometimes many years into the future, so great are the demands on their musical time.
Their role, musically speaking, is not just the obvious one of using their baton or hands to keep time for all the players and/or singers in front of them to see. Conductors also play an important part as the channel for the overall interpretation of the music; they have a lot of say over how an orchestra makes a particular piece of music sound.
Some conductors choose to try to interpret a composer’s wishes to the tiniest degree, hoping to bring out every nuance in the music as its writer intended it. Others prefer simply to be a channel for their own unique vision (perhaps audition would be a better word in this case) of the way the music should sound. Often this is done not just by means of time and dynamic, but via something wholly more indefinable: the quality of the conductor’s presence on the podium; the rapport already established with the musicians; and even mere movements and gestures of the eyes.
Historically, conductors have not always been as they are today. Early on, a mixture of the keyboard player and the leader (the head of the first violins) would jointly keep the orchestra in line. In Jean-Baptiste Lully’s day, in the 1600s, a conductor would thump the floor with a broom-sized stick in order to keep time, a practice that famously led to his death from gangrene when he hit his foot during a performance of his Te Deum.
Later, the composer Louis Spohr was just one of those at the forefront of refining conducting into what it is now, championing not only the use of the baton but also the addition of letters of the alphabet to scores, thus dividing them into navigable sections. The notion of conductors as musical interpreters originated in the nineteenth century, when changing attitudes to musical performance gave them far greater importance. Indeed, in many respects, composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Wagner were thought of in their day as conductors first and composers second.
Great conductors of the past have included Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Sir Thomas Beecham, Leopold Stokowski, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult, Herbert von Karajan, Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Colin Davis.
Today’s great conductors include:
One of the few very successful female conductors, American-born Marin Alsop made her name in the UK first as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and of the City of London Sinfonia and, subsequently, as the Principal Conductor of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She is now Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra.
This Italian conductor made his name first as an opera conductor, before turning his expert attention to symphonic repertoire. Chailly’s roles have included Principal Conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (known as La Verdi). The Principal Conductor of La Scala Milan as of January 2015, he will then take over there as Music Director in 2017. He has an exclusive recording contract with the Decca label, which has seen him produce a raft of critically acclaimed albums.
One of the darlings of the classical music world, this global sensation came to public attention as the Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, which is based in his native Venezuela. Dudamel now has the same role at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and also appears alongside many of the world’s biggest orchestras as a guest conductor.
Among the world’s busiest conductors, Gergiev’s roles include General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Munich Philharmonic and Artistic Director of the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg. His repertoire in both the recording studio and the concert hall is extensive – spanning opera, ballet and symphonic works.
Latvian, born in 1943, Jansons is the Music Director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. And it’s in his blood too: ‘As a very small boy, three years old, I was always observing . . . I went to my father’s rehearsals. When I came home, I put my book on the table and started to conduct.’
Despite his Italian parentage, Antonio Pappano was actually born in Epping in Essex, although his family moved to Connecticut in the US when he was a teenager. A huge success as Music Director of the Royal Opera House, he holds the same role at the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and has also been Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
The young Russian in charge of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has been making waves in the classical music world ever since he arrived on Merseyside. Petrenko’s vigorous and energetic style is also perfectly suited to his Principal Conductorship of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He is also the Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Quite possibly the best-known British classical musician of his generation, this Liverpudlian made his conducting debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra while he was still at school. Rattle sprang to international fame for his work with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. His status as a classical superstar was cemented when he was appointed Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002. He also regularly conducts the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Born in 1958, this Finnish conductor and composer, currently the Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is noted for his passionate and exacting style. He is also a respected contemporary classical composer, often premiering his own works with his orchestras.