Word: conductor
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...baton moves stolidly. but his left hand-often called the most graceful in music-is a sculptor's hand, shaping and molding each sound, grasping the fortissimos, summoning the dominant voices and, for excited counterrhythms and violent colors, fluttering like a bird caught in a storm. "Between conductor and orchestra," Szell says, "a great deal must occur below the conscious level. There must be an understanding that is mystical and even occult. The freshness of the eyes, the mood-each movement must transmit itself to the players as an unmistakable musical signal...
Szell has built his orchestra from 94 to 105 players, extended its season from 20 to 26 weeks, signed a brisk recording contract with Epic Records, and won a large new audience for his yearly tours. Associate Conductor Robert Shaw's Cleveland Orchestra Chorus has been increased to 201 members, and it is now nearly the peer of his Chorale. The orchestra's women's committee now has 1,500 members, busies itself with sternly taught courses in music appreciation, then goes out to round up contributions to fill in the orchestra's immense deficit...
...luster, with audience, musicians and critics all bickering over the orchestra's wayward course. When Bernstein took over in 1958, the Philharmonic began to recapture the audience that it had not had since its "Golden Era" under Toscanini in the '30s. As the only American-born conductor of a major U.S. orchestra, Bernstein brought the Philharmonic new esprit and quieted its cranky audience. But soon his St. Vitus conducting technique upset even his fans; to many of them, he seems to be much better at conducting the audience than the orchestra...
...Philadelphia Orchestra has a sound all its own. though Conductor Eugene Ormandy is rankled by the idea of a "Philadelphia Sound"; it's the "Ormandy Sound," he says. In either case, the Philadelphia often seems like one great violin in the sky. Its lush sound persists deep into the driest classics, where Ormandy, a former violinist and a rhapsodic conductor, finds himself in occasional trouble. But in the immense music that is his specialty, Ormandy is without equal. In the 19th and 20th century showpieces that he likes to conduct, Ormandy joyfully exhibits the great virtuosity of Philadelphia...
Ormandy has led the Philadelphia for 27 years, a longer tenure than that of any other major conductor. He shares with Bernstein an unbounded confidence in his players (though none call him "Gene," as New York musicians call Bernstein "Lenny"); in rehearsals, he treats them with a firm but gentle hand. On the podium, he uses no baton and, with his right hand liberated, gives his deepest concentration to color and balance. Perhaps as a result, his tempos sometimes drift...