What An Entertaining Guy

damn dude. you have no idea how encouraging it is to see something like this on the OT. holy shite man. you made my night.

gustavo is one of the stars in the conducting world. and this movement of this particular symphony is pretty great.

gustavo is the man though.

Never heard of him, of course I guess that's to be expected as I'm more of a bluegrass kinda guy.

But that particular piece and his conducting was excellent.

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Full disclosure: I don't know shite about orchestras.

How important is the conductor in a concert? I don't see any of the players looking at him while he's conducting.

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I dunno. I don't know anything about orchestras either. The performance is impressive though.

very important. the musicians can't hear the song to know when to play. the conductor keeps everyone together as far as when to play.

Yep. And he has perfect hair for that job too.

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very important. the musicians can't hear the song to know when to play. the conductor keeps everyone together as far as when to play.

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sorry, not trying to be an arse.

musicians actually can perform a piece without the conductor. Everything is written in the music. The conductor is sort like of a cheerleader. He/she dictates how loud, soft, fast or slow something is.

There have been many infamous conductor/musician feuds in the history of orchestras. They can't agree on whose (the musician or conductor) interpretation to use and it is really a battle of egos. Entire books have been written on that matter.

yea, cueing is important, but really only at lower levels of ability. it's not as important as molding the emotional landscape of the music.

It also really depends on the piece as well. If a group is performing stravinsky with a bunch of mixed meter shite, then cueing is a bit more important as compared to something like mozart which is not melodically or rhythmically complex.

sitting in the band, it's actually not all that hard to hear everybody else, except when the volume levels get really high.

Goofy movements - ya, every conductor has their own style, sort of like how every college football coach has a different way of conducting their business. The conductor rehearses the group a lot, usually adjusting the balances to what suits their personal taste. They are also in charge of hiring and firing of the players, if they are the principal conductor.

Yes, he is giving direction, but to the extent he is giving it is up for debate. Me, as a musician, am not to fond of conductors because I'm the one making the noise - not them.

It's really kind of the same thing as coaches and sports teams. Is it the players or coach that really win the game? Does Les Miles win games because of his players or in spite of his players?

To get a gig conducting, you basically have to apprentice your entire life. This includes things like memorizing scores (think about that for a second...every part of a piece of music is memorized), studying the inherent challenges of performing each instrument, usually being an accomplished musician yourself, being able to effectively interact with the community at large and interact with donors, etc. etc.

That guy is really awesome. That was impressive