Which is better: a bad conductor with a good orchestra, or vice versa?

By David Amos

SAN DIEGO–The story is told that sometime in the first half of the Twentieth Century, a New York music critic took his seat at Carnegie Hall for a concert of the NBC Orchestra. An elderly lady seated next to him asked, “That man on the podium, Mr. Toscanini, is he also supposed to know the music?”

Yes, conductors and their functions are misunderstood in so many different ways. There is an element of mystery, and, if you wish, magic in what some conductors can do, but the simple fact is that the following elements must be in place for great music to take place:

1. A conductor who knows his music thoroughly, completely, in and out, upside down.
2. 2. A conductor with interpretative insights, communicative skills, and baton technique. Charisma helps, but it should not, as it often happens, hide artistic deficiencies.
3. The right venue. Choice of the appropriate music in the right setting, for the right audience.
4. And most essential: Great orchestral musicians.

 The last point can not be overemphasized. And this will be the main thrust of this article. The greatest conductor in the world, when facing mediocre or inferior musicians is almost powerless to create great music.

And this is where specialization can be so interesting. Let’s take two examples.

What would happen, for instance, if you took your average middle school band or orchestra director-teacher, and put him in front of the London Symphony Orchestra, unquestionably one of the world’s great orchestras? Let the music be, for argument’s sake, the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I guarantee you that it would sound very good. There are reasons for this. First, the musicians know the music quite well, and could play it in “automatic pilot” if necessary. They could be facing Ronald McDonald, and it would not bother them.  If they are receiving a somewhat satisfactory beat from the podium, that much the better. Second, when pieces such as this Scherzo are played by experienced musicians, very little can go wrong. The final results may not be the sound of genius, but it would be quite acceptable. Furthermore, 95% of the listeners could not tell the difference in a blind test from the sound of our school teacher’s work with the LSO to  some of the world’s renowned conductors. Guaranteed. This is a direct challenge to snobbish listeners who pretend to have discriminating tastes and will accept nothing but the best.

But now, take the opposite case. Put a world class, superstar, jetsetter, glamorous, rich, powerful, and famous maestro in front of that same teacher’s school orchestra, and the results would be beyond disastrous. A great conductor would not know where to begin to make a school orchestra sound half-decent, while our schoolteacher, because of his/her training, preparation, expectations, and patience, could take this same group, and with proper rehearsal time, give us a program that is quite acceptable for school programs and PTA meetings.

I know of very few conductors who can make the transition, that is, to have the ability to be effective both as a grand maestro in front of professionals, and as a teacher, with less proficient forces. Different skills come into play.

Where there is a common thread, however, is in interpretation. At all levels, knowledge and love for the music at hand is essential. If you listen carefully, you may catch insights and subtleties in less than world-class ensembles, which the big boys and girls at times only approximate. This is, of course, due to the difference in rehearsal time, a limitation with professional ensembles, and the inbred arrogance of these groups to familiar and overplayed music. After all, if they have played Brahms’ Second Symphony 1000 times, you can’t really blame them. The same thing happens to superstar soloists, who go from city to city playing the same popular piece, time and time again. It’s hard to keep it fresh, and in most cases, it is bound to become stale and mechanic.

Today’s top maestros are certainly wonderful, but I have been personally told by some of the best orchestral musicians in London or Tel-Aviv, how much they dreaded the upcoming rehearsals and concerts with a household name guest conductor. You see, what is perceived by audiences, critics, and the publicity media is different at times from what musicians feel. And, I have seen and heard the exact opposite: Musicians from the Israel Philharmonic were glowing with joy and inspiration after a series of concerts and recordings with Leonard Bernstein in the mid-1980’s.

The biggest, but not the only challenge for a conductor is not to make an orchestra “sound good”. That is a given, assuming a high expectation from the skills of the musicians at hand. But rather, the goal is to squeeze every ounce of interest, excitement, and artistry out of the music. This is for the sake of the audience, the musicians, and the conductor himself. Unfortunately, many fail do so for a variety of reasons.

It is simply not enough for music to sound “OK”, just because it is technically correct. There is a lot more to it than that. I have heard, live and on stage, technically flawed performances which remain in my mind as monumental, emotional, and memorable achievements. This is where the heart and soul come into play, and something special takes place. I was once told by a frequent concertgoer, “This was a pretty good concert, until the horns missed two notes; it spoiled everything”. Ridiculous. That person missed the entire point of the music.

It is much more preferable to hear a program with a few technical errors, but one that bristles with energy, to one that is antiseptically neat, but deadly dull.

Can you tell the difference? One is not born with this ability; it has to be learned. But the rewards are many.

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Amos is conductor of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra and has guest conducted professional orchestras around the world.