Some conductors put all the emphasis on the melodic line, while others are fanatics about rhythm, but there are very few conductors who are uniquely able to look at the score and hear every part before it actually happens. With the very best of conductors, it’s as though there are two performances going on simultaneously.
The first one is in their head: they know exactly what they want in terms of tempo, line, pacing, and connection. The second is the one they hear back from the orchestra, the one they conducted. And most of the time the two performances are not identical—but these few people are able to know exactly what they want, to hear what the orchestral plays down to every last detail … and then to respond instantly to fix it while it is going on, if the “played” performance isn’t quite accurate to the “ideal” performance in their minds. This is the way Boulez and Barenboim conduct, and for a musician to see and hear this happening is astounding…
Dave Clevenger, principal horn with Chicago Symphony. Cited in: Green, Barry (2003) The Mastery of Music: Ten Pathways to True Artistry. New York: Broadway Books, p. 38.
The ideal and the played performance
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Ravel’s compositional process
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