Word: conductor
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...Cleveland's Rafael Druian, 44, has been the solid cornerstone of Conductor George Szell's ensemble for six years, is the epitome of the unruffable consistency demanded of the concertmaster. Born in Russia, trained in Cuba and the U.S., he was concertmaster of the Minneapolis Symphony for eleven years before going to Cleveland...
...from Philadelphia's Curtis Institute at 17 ("I was too distracted by girls and baseball"). Silverstein is one of the few concertmasters to work his way up from the ranks; he joined the Boston string section in 1955, ascended to the first chair in 1962. Says Boston Symphony Conductor Erich Leinsdorf: "He has some sort of beam or antenna, so that he knows what I want almost before...
...good concertmaster is as rare as a humble conductor. He is indispensable to a conductor's success and, as such, is guarded and pampered like a mistress. Sir John Barbirolli refers to his man as his "chief of staff," Eugene Ormandy's is his "mind reader," William Steinberg's his "seismograph," Donald Johanos' his "stroke...
...concertmaster is all that and more, relying on a sixth sense to translate the ideas of the conductor to the musicians. He derives his authority from the simple fact that he can play better than anyone else in the orchestra, sets the standard that the rest of the players are expected to live up to. He plays all the important violin solos in an orchestral piece, and, indeed, ought to be so familiar with the literature that he can substitute at the last minute for an absent violin soloist...
...effect, he is a subconductor, able, and often compelled, to rescue the maestro when he misses an entrance or loses his place. Ravel was such a notoriously bad conductor that soloists who were condemned to play under his baton sometimes made a secret pact to take all their cues from the concertmaster. Says Leinsdorf: "If you have a good concertmaster, you don't have to move your left arm so much...