Conductor Quotes - Page 3

• And if you are strong enough, then you can grow as a conductor more and more.

  Kurt Masur

  Strong, Enough, Grows

  9 Copy quote

• Musical practice is too young an art in America to warrant a search for men with a conductor's gift.

  Anton Seidl

  Art, Men, Practice

  Anton Seidl (2014). “On Conducting”, p.106, Parrot Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The conductor's gift does not always go hand in hand with that of composition; indeed, the union is found much more seldom than is popularly believed.

  Anton Seidl

  Hands, Doe, Unions

  8 Copy quote

• The great actors are the luminous ones. They are the great conductors of the stage.

  Ethel Barrymore

  Acting, Actors, Theater

  13 Copy quote

• I was different from most young conductors today.

  Kurt Masur

  Different, Today, Young

  8 Copy quote

• Great cataclysmic things can go by and neither the orchestra nor the conductor are under the delusion that whether they make this or that gesture is going to be the deciding factor in how it comes out.

  James Levine

  Orchestra, Gestures, Delusion

  8 Copy quote

• A good example of how it must have been is today's world of conducting, which is still utterly dominated by men, and the prejudice the few female conductors have to battle even today is astounding.

  Lara St. John

  Men, Battle, Prejudice

  8 Copy quote

• I have a big problem with conductors who gesture a lot.

  James Levine

  Gestures, Problem, Bigs

  8 Copy quote

• In South America, I heard the 8th Symphony of Beethoven. And the young conductor thought, Beethoven must be heroic. But this is piece which shouldn't be heroic. And this was such a misunderstanding, such a deep misunderstanding.

  Kurt Masur

  Symphony, America, Pieces

  8 Copy quote

• When I first was conducting as guest conductor in Europe 25 years ago, I would propose doing American pieces and grudgingly it would be accepted from time to time.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Years, Europe, Firsts

  8 Copy quote

• Composers are not all good conductors.

  Anton Seidl

  Composer

  8 Copy quote

• And at the same time, I had my very first concert at the age of 16. I hadn't heard a symphony orchestra before, and I was so deeply impressed I said I have to be a conductor.

  Kurt Masur

  Symphony, Age, Orchestra

  8 Copy quote

• If I take that person and play them as a record I'm becoming not only a conductor and composer of collage, but at the same time I'm looking at a whole layer of what goes into copyright law, who owns those memories, who owns the way that that sound gets remixed and transformed and above all how much fun it is to actually just mess with other people's stuff.

  DJ Spooky

  Fun, Memories, Law

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. April 8, 2010.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I like to create the music I hear in my interior. As a conductor, you have the ability to squeeze the sounds and interpretation you asked for from 50 to 80 people.

  Eberhard Weber

  Music, People, Sound

  8 Copy quote

• We are aware that the conductor is not really making the music, it is making him -- if he is relaxed, open and attuned, then the invisible will take possession of him; through him, it will reach us.

  Peter Brook

  Music, Invisible, Possession

  Peter Brook (1996). “The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate”, p.42, Simon and Schuster

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• The director is a bit analogous to the conductor of a symphony orchestra. It's a collaborative adventure.

  Nicholas Meyer

  Travel, Adventure, Symphony

  9 Copy quote

• You hear the same work by different orchestras, different conductors, violinists, pianists, singers, and slowly, the work reveals itself and begins to live deeper in you.

  David Ogden Stiers

  Different, Orchestra, Singers

  8 Copy quote

• So, first you have to be able to play with a metronome. Then you take your freedom. If you play in an orchestra, you got to watch the conductor, he is like a metronome, but it is more difficult because he can change rhythms.

  Ruggiero Ricci

  Play, Firsts, Watches

  27 Copy quote

• I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.

  Franz Liszt

  Littles, Berlioz, Function

  14 Copy quote

• The essential conditions of everything you do must be choice, love, passion.

  Nadia Boulanger

  Love, Inspirational, Work

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  69 Copy quote

  Show source

• Music is the thousandth of a millisecond between one note and another; how you get from one to the other-that's where the music is.

  Isaac Stern

  Music, Art, Notes

  40 Copy quote

• There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a conductor say, 'Play softer,' as they're waving their hands in huge gestures.

  Joshua Bell

  Hands, Play, Gestures

  "Classical 'Rock Star' Joshua Bell Takes On Conducting". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. April 24, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• An audience is an abstraction; it has no taste. It must depend on the only person who has (pardon, should have), the conductor.

  Igor Stravinsky

  Should Have, Taste, Pardon

  9 Copy quote

• Boulez's only concern is with power. He lost the leadership of the avant-guard more than ten years ago to Stockhausen. Now others have moved in. With the need for power, where was he to go? So he chose to be a conductor. He is a wonderful musician, a wonderful intelligence. It's a pity there is no humanity there. Does he have sex? I think not. When men have no sex, they go after power in this big, obsessive way.

  Lukas Foss

  Sex, Men, Thinking

  13 Copy quote

• Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it.

  Thomas Beecham

  Giving, Musical, Scratches

  To a cellist; attributed, no source found

  39 Copy quote

  Show source