> CONCERNING CONDUCTORS

Some advice for conductors from composers, musicians and other conductors: Composer Richard Strauss: “Never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight. If you can hear them at all, they are too loud.” Conductor Otto Klemperer: “The important thing is one should let the orchestra breathe.” French horn player Barry Tuckwell (to conductor André Previn): “When you get lost, and you will . . . just make some elegant vague motion and we’ll put it all to rights quickly enough.” Strauss: “You must not perspire when conducting; only the public must get warm.” Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham: “It’s easy. All you have to do is waggle a stick.” Composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: “Conducting is a black art.” Conductor Hans von Bulow: “You must have the score in your head, not your head in the score.” Composer Charles Gounod: “The conductor is nothing more than the driver of the coach engaged by the composer.”