Baton down the hatches

The Beat, and Where It Is.

First of all, we talk about stick technique. I’ve had a lot of conductors who don’t use a baton, or who put the baton down for a period of time up to a couple of years. How can you have a stick technique if you don’t use a stick?

We were fortunate to play a concert set with Sir Georg Solti conducting us. Talk about a stick technique! All he did was wave the baton in the air. No beat visible. Yet somehow we knew exactly what he wanted; and in the end we ended up sounding just like the Chicago Symphony.

In a like vein, the first time we had Eugene Ormandy conduct us, he started the rehearsal with the last movement of Beethoven #7. He set the tempo, and then just sat there not moving, not conducting at all. Eventually, he gave us the cupped-hands thing (as in Your In Good Hands With Allstate). So we sawed away a little harder. We ended up sounding like the Philadelphia Orchestra. Again, no baton technique at all, just a motion.

So somehow, I find that the baton technique is less important than the talent/charisma of the conductor.

It has been my experience that the best conductors do intend the bottom of the beat to come before the moment of the beat that we play. It seems as though they want to indicate to us by the quality of their beat that we will need to be playing in a certain manner when we get there. If the beat is strong, we’ll play with an articulation; if smooth, then legato, etc.

Also, every conductor has a different take on where the beat should be. One conductor said that the beat should be when he gets to the top button of his vest on the way up. Another one that I know wants the beat to be at the top of his stroke; that is, he goes down, hits bottom, comes up, and at the top, that’s where the beat is. It sounds complicated, trying to adjust to all this, but frankly, they adjust to our playing as much as we adjust to their beat; it all works out somehow.

There is one other thing here, as well. Often the brass (for example) delay their beat; they play behind where the rest of us are. If the conductor gives the brass a beat that’s really quite early, they know where to put their notes. It seems to me that this is an important part of conducting technique especially when the instrumental group is far away.

Not too long ago Rostropovich conducted us. He’s a great musician but not a very good conductor. He evidently consulted a real conductor when he couldn’t get the brass (for example) to play with his beat, and the real conductor must have told him what I outlined in the previous paragraph. So when our brass section was late, his first response was to blame the brass. “You’re late!” (This is something else that bugs me, when the conductor blames us for his deficiency.) Then when he would repeat that passage, he’d flip his beat a little early and the brass would be correct.

So for the most part, I agree that the conductor’s beat should be in front of the beat. I have said, and so have others, that when the beat gets so far in front that it is disconnected from the music, that is a recipe for disaster, unless we can just ignore the conductor.