A courteous conductor

Brucker was invited by Hans Richter to conduct one of his symphonies with the Vienna Society of Friends of Music.

At the rehearsal he stood on the conductor’s platform, stick in hand, with a beatific smile on his face. The orchestra were all ready to begin, but he would not lift his stick to give the signal. Finally, Rosé, the concert master, said to him, “We are quite ready. Begin, Herr Bruckner.” “Oh, no,” he answered, “After you, gentlemen.”

W. Damrosch, My Musical Life, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923, p. 353. Project Guttenberg (EBook #5887): https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58871/58871-h/58871-h.htm), accessed 17 October 2023.

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